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A TRIP 



TO 



ST. PETERSBURG. 



In the hope of affording some little amusement to my 
friends, the following Letters have been reprinted from the 
" Windsor and Eton Herald,'" for private circulation. 

E. RICHARDSON-GARDNER. 



46, Sussex Gardens, Hyde Park, 
Christmas 1872. 






"WESIJfTS'STEB : 
PEISTED BY X. BEETTELL A^D CO. 51, RUPEE! ST B E E T, — W. 



205449 
'13 



Hotel de Russie, 

St. Petersburg, 

16-28th December, 1871. 

My dear John, 

You kindly expressed a wish, to hear how our 
party fared in undertaking such a long journey in the 
dead of winter ; and so, in compliance with your request, 
I send you a few "jottings by the way," which I trust 
may interest you and our friends at home, although you 
must expect them to be very incoherent, and not be 
surprised to find that I run in my thoughts up and 
down the line, backwards or forwards, some odd 
thousand miles or so, to describe something, which 
occurred at some time, somewhere. 

St. Petersburg sounds a long way off ; and so it is ; 
overland above two thousand miles, by Calais, Brussels, 
Cologne, Berlin, Kowno, Wilna, and Pskof; but our 
time has passed so pleasantly, in such agreeable society, 
with so much comfort and convenience, that on our 
arrival here, after five days' and five nights' journey, 
two nights of which were passed in beds and three in 
railway carriages, we found ourselves, after warm baths 
and a nice little supper, quite prepared to start again if 
necessary. 

"Well, our party consisted of Louise, myself, Colonel 
Money, (the accomplished writer of those interesting 



articles in The Times of September last, descriptive of 
the Russian autumn manoeuvres), Lieut. -Colonel Isen- 
beck, (a distinguished officer in the Russian army, 
speaking English like an Englishman), Captain 
Chambers, (a Canadian officer on his way to the 
Caucasus), and a jolly party we were, the endeavour of 
each being to amuse and entertain the others, so as to 
wile away the hours which might otherwise have been 
felt to have been long and wearisome. 

To begin at the beginning, as the story books say, we 
first of all paid a visit to Nicholay's, the extensive 
furrier, in Oxford Street, for our Russian outfit, which 
comprised a regular suit of furs, clothing ourselves cap- 
a-pie, from head to foot, in the skins of wild beasts ; 
with this advantage over the inferior animals, that we 
wear their fur next our bodies, by turning them inside 
out, or outside in, which is it ? as Dundreary would say. 
My " shuba," (a long fur cloak), cap, boots, and gloves 
are of beaver ; Louise patronised the lynx, Colonel 
Money was enveloped in racoon, Colonel Isenbeck in 
bear, and Louise turned out her maid (Bateson) as a 
kangaroo. I must consult Darwin, and ascertain 
whether there is any natural affinity in his theory, 
between either of us and the animals whose skins we 
inhabit, or whether, in the event of our wearing them 
long enough, we are likely to return to our aboriginal 
or abnormal state. We should make the fortune of 
Wombwell's menagerie, if we offered ourselves for 
exhibition on our return. 

Among other desirable things we provided ourselves 
with, were a pic-nic basket, fitted up with four knives and 
forks, plates, tumblers, d'oyleys, two wine bottles with 
screw corks, a butter bowl, tin for preserved meats, salt, 
pepper, mustard boxes, &c, which we had carefully 



filled at Fortnum and Mason's with collard tongue, 
Yorkshire pies, pate de foie gras, Bolognas, and solid 
beef tea, so as to be prepared for a campaign on the 
road, in the event of our being snowed up, which does 
occasionally happen, besides being useful whenever the 
qualms of hunger overtook us, and no refreshment- 
room within reach. Then we laid in an "Etna," and 
spirits of wine, railway reading lamps on an improved 
principle, purchased at Argand's, in Bruton Street, a 
chess board, with men moving on pegs fitted into holes 
in the board, india-rubber things to be inflated so as to 
support the back, very much in the form of (pray don't 
mention it) a lady's bustle, a thermometer and 
barometer in'Morocco cases, and Murray's hand books for 
North Germany, Russia, Poland, and Finland, &c. &c. 

Wishing our friends good-bye, and being all prepared 
with first-class through tickets to St. Petersburg, with 
28 coupons for places en route, off we started by 8.45 
p.m. train from Charing Cross for Dover and Calais, 
leaving the latter place for our 2,000 miles journey in 
the early hours of the morning, with a carriage to 
ourselves, and Colonel Money, and the other gentlemen 
with one to themselves, all tucked up and made ready 
for a comfortable nap, in which we all thoroughly 
indulged ; and, as at this moment writing to you from 
my hotel at St. Petersburg, I find it is time to retire, 
I will say good night, and resume my "'jottings by 
the way " to-morrow morning. 

A fine fresh morning, clear and frosty, with the 
sleighs dashing about, and everyone looking happy and 
cheerful. Thermometer a few degrees below freezing 
point outside, with a delightful atmosphere in our rooms 
of about 65 degrees Fahrenheit, kept at that tempera- 
ture all day and all night through. But I forget that 



6 

my jottings have not yet brought me here, so I must 
not anticipate. Let me see ; where was I last night ? 
Leaving Calais, fast asleep, to wake up at Lille, where 
cafe au lait was the order of the day. By-the-bye, who 
has eyer been offered one franc paper notes in France 
before the late calamitous war ? I have made this same 
early repast at Lille a dozen times on my visits to the 
continent, but silver coinage was always in abundance ; 
but now, alas ! those barbarous Germans have despoiled 
poor France of all its silver and gold, and she has been 
obliged to retrograde to a small paper currency, while 
the victorious Prussians have reconverted their paper 
thalers into delightful little gold pieces of 5, 10, and 
15 thalers each. 

First night passed in railway carnages ; second night in 
bed at Cologne, and glad we were to get out of the place 
next morning, famed as it is for its typhoid disagreeables, 
which no number of their Jean Marie Farinas, with 
any quantity of their famous eau, is capable of dispelling 
from the olfactories. The cathedral tower, however, I 
am glad to inform you, has much progressed since your 
last visit. The King of Prussia, I hear, pays towards 
its completion a million thalers a year, which, poor 
fellow, he can well afford now, if Bismarck lets him in 
for a share of the French spoil. Now, for Berlin, 
passing on the way Krupp's cast steel factory, famed for 
the production of colossal ordnance of the most 
scientific kinds. The enormous scale of his works is 
shown by the fact that they cover 450 acres of ground, 
and employ 8,000 men and 195 steam engines. Let 
Manchester and Birmingham look to their laurels, 
or rather to their pockets ; but I can give them 
one scrap of comfort, that on trial, Krupp's have been 
surpassed by Armstrong's, and I read in the paper that 



an enormous steel gun of Krupp's burst the other day 
at Cronstadt, and killed a few people, but, unfortunately 
for Armstrong, Krupp wasn't there. 

Through the pass called Porta Westphaliae. In the 
neighbourhood of this pass is supposed to have occurred 
the great battle in which the German general Arminius 
defeated the Roman army under Varus with terrific 
slaughter. It is well known that this defeat put a stop 
to the advance of the Romans into northern Germany ; 
Varus killed himself after the battle, but his head was 
sent to the Emperor Augustus, at Rome, who was 
so dejected by the news, that for several days he 
scarcely spoke except to say, " Vare, Vare, ubi sunt 
legiones mem" 

On, on, through Hanover and Brunswick, with a 
sympathetic feeling, as we pass, for the poor blind king 
and his troubles, and the warlike race of Brunswick, 
nine of whose princes are interred in the vaults of the 
cathedral of St. Blaize, all of them having perished in 
the field of battle ; among them are the bodies of the 
duke who was mortally wounded at the fatal battle of 
Jena, and of his son, who fell at Quatre Bras, having 
nobly avenged his father's death at the head of his 
devoted black band. First view of the Elbe at 
Magdeburg, frozen into blocks of ice. There Luther 
went to School, as a poor chorister, often sung at rich 
men's doors to earn a scanty pittance, ^and here the 
ferocious Tilly, after carrying the citadel by assault, 
after two year's siege, massacred 30,000 of its 
inhabitants, without regard to age or sex, and burnt the 
church of St. John, where many hundred women and 
children had taken refuge. Is it not Milton who our 
father used to quote, as saying that " Man's inhumanity 
to man makes countless thousands mourn " ? 



8 

Through Potsdam, the Prussian Versailles, (when we 
had a view of some of its magnificence, but which we 
shall visit more particularly on our homeward journey) 
into Berlin, about eleven o'clock at night, where 
carriages awaited us (by telegraph) to convey us to the 
Hotel du Xord, Unter den Linden. Now, my dear 
John, I don't know what your idea is of Berlin, but 
my first impressions are those of disappointment as 
regards the town in its external aspect, but I may be 
more pleased on our return, when we shall have time 
to visit its art treasures, &c. The great Brandenburg 
gate, an imitation of the Propylaeum at Athens, is 
grand ; but when I remember the magnificent triumphal 
arch at Milan, the comparison is not in favour of 
Berlin. They both exhibit cars of victory on their 
summit, but the Milanese is by far the superior work of 
art. The statue of Frederick the Great, the colonnade 
of the Museum, the Arsenal, and one or two other 
public buildings, comprise the principal architectural 
and artistic beauties ; but I must not forget to mention 
the beautiful statues by Kiss, the Amazon which we 
had at our great exhibition, and another of St. George 
and the Dragon, which I had never seen before, and 
shall never forget. I went to gaze at it three times in 
twenty-four hours ; but I don't intend to weary you 
with descriptions, all of which may be found in Murray, 
but rather to jot down little things as they occur on 
our route. Let me advise you, if you come abroad, 
not to go to Prussia for some little time, as although 
we have personally experienced no discourtesy, I feel 
sure there is a latent unfriendly feeling towards the 
English by the Prussians since the late war, an opinion 
which has been confirmed by several with whom I have 
lately spoken on the subject. In fact, I witnessed it on 



9 

more than one occasion, notably at the railway station, 
when we were leaving for Russia. There happened to 
be some dispute between a Prussian Droshki driver 
and an Englishman, and soon a crowd gathered round 
and became very insolent and even menacing to the 
Englishman, who in this case was clearly in the right, 
but who had Prussian hands laid upon him, which I 
fully expected would have ended in a fight. If such 
had happened, our party of four men were quite prepared 
to take his part and save him from maltreatment, 
however unpleasant or undignified it might have been 
to be hustled by a lot of Prussian roughs. The upper 
classes do not, of course, show it in this fashion, but it 
exists, whatever be the cause of it, and the lower orders 
manifest physically that which the superior orders 
incline to mentally. The Imperial Palace, or 
" Schloss," built by the father of Frederick the Great, 
is a fine old palace, used chiefly now for Court ceremo- 
nials, the King inhabiting a smaller, but probably more 
comfortable place of residence ; but I was really 
surprised that his majesty should allow the exterior of 
his ancestral palace to remain in such a disreputable 
state. It is in a disgraceful state of want of repair. 
Again I hope that some of the Frenchman's " shekels of 
gold and of silver " may be applied to the re-adornment 
of his Majesty's heritage. 

Next night, eleven o'clock p.m. — Take our place from 
Berlin to St. Petersburg — two nights' and two days' 
travel. Let us look about us and see what our 
arrangements are. Louise and I have a double com- 
partment-carriage, each opening out into the other by 
a door between ; the one making up into beds for the 
night and the other forming our compartment for the day, 
all heated most genially by hot water pipes laid on from 



10 

the engine boiler. Good. Our commissionaire who 
we sent to engage this extra comfort for us carried out 
his instructions well. What have Colonel Money and 
our other companions got ? After settling ourselves 
we issue forth to find them out ; nothing could be 
better. A large saloon carriage, heated by a wood- 
burning stove, and all of them seated round smoking 
their cigars, with another companion who I have not 
mentioned before, but whom I will introduce to you 
now. A tremendous, large, handsome mastiff dog, 
bought by Colonel Isenbeck of the famous Bill George, 
of Canine Hall, Kensal New Town, lay stretching 
himself at full length in the middle of the saloon, 
and what do you think they had christened him, 
painting his name in large letters on his temporary 
leather collar, Roger ! Was it not too bad of the 
Eussian colonel ? Some of the fellows had put him 
up to it, to have a joke with me ; however I patted 
him on his back and said he was called after a very 
good fellow, although a political opponent, and Eoger 
has fared sumptuously every day, and formed one of 
our party, travelling in first-class carriages right through 
to St. Petersburg. And, now, returning to our carriage 
and settling ourselves for the night, I will reserve the 
remainder of our journey until my next letter. 

I remain, your affectionate Brother, 

B. RICHARDSON-GARDNER. 

John C. Richardson, Esq. 

Glanbrydan Park, Carmarthenshire. 



11 



Hotel de Russie, 

St. Petersburg, 

Dec. 23, 1871, {Jan. 4, 1872). 

My dear John, 

I hope you received my last letter all right, 
as although I believe letters are safely carried to their 
destination, newspapers suffer a different fate ; those 
not in the official list are destroyed, and those 
which are, have to pass through a censorship at the 
frontier before continuing their journey, and sometimes 
lose a column or two. To-day we received The Times 
of Thursday, the 28th December, and on the eighth page, 
end of third column, there was a large black patch, obliter- 
ating something, at the end of which I could only read 
Mall Gazette, thus depriving the poor Pall Mall of its 
christian name, from which paper The Times had copied 
the article in question, whatever it may happen to have 
been. With true feminine curiosity, Louise, assisted 
by Bateson, began to consider how they could 
circumvent the enemy and restore the legibility of the 
print : but all in vain, the more they tried to get the 
Satanic colour off, the faster it stuck, and the blacker it 
became. So having given it up as hopeless, and not 
wishing to be beaten, Louise wants you to cut it out 
and send it in a letter, and thus do the censor at the 
frontier. 

Here we are as you see by the dates of my letter 
living a double existence. As English men and women 
we have had our Christmas -day, and our New Year's- 



12 

day ; but as temporary Eussians we are still in the year 
1871, and are going in for more roast beef and plum 
pudding next Saturday — the Russian Christmas - day ; 
the classical reason for our double jollity being that the 
calendar in use in Russia is the Julian or Greek, which 
is twelve days behind the Gregorian or Latin, so that 
as we are now situated, I have the advantage of being 
twelve days more your junior than you thought I was. 

But now a truce to fun : let's to business and be 
serious, as Money says, when nobody is listening to 
him. Pomerania ; that's were we are supposed to be 
on our journey travelling from Berlin to the Prussian 
frontier of Eydkuhnen, and longing to be the other side 
of it, at Wierzbolow, our first Russian town : but we 
have yet several hundred miles to get there, so I 
must "jot" down a little by the way. Just as we 
started from Berlin we made another acquaintance 
besides "Roger," an officer in the Blues, height, 
6-ft. 4-in., wrapped up in a splendid Astracan 
" Shuba," and to whom I had previously called 
Chambers' attention, as being a magnificent Russian. 
It seems he had previously travelled with Isenbeck, 
and added materially to the pleasure of the 
saloon party as far as Wilna. Our Guardsman is a 
perfect marvel, he speaks nine living languages — 
Russian included — and has travelled over pretty nearly 
the whole of this world, occupying all his " leave " in 
so doing ; and if he can only get " leave " in the next, 
there is no knowing where he would not go. 

Now, I have no doubt hundreds of English railway 
directors have travelled on these German lines and if 
they are not deprived of the means of observation, 
they must have noticed many little things — small in 
their way — but calculated to be of great service and 



13 

convenience to railway travellers, which they might 
have very easily introduced on their own railways. 
Here's one, — In this North Prussian carriage there is a 
pasteboard card, about one foot square, headed 
" Fahrplanmassige " (travelling plan regulations), and 
underneath, " Aufenthaltszeiten " (stopping times), and 
it proceeds to give you for the train you are in, its 
time of arrival at the stations, time of departure, 
difference carried out in another column as stopping 
time, and all times between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., have a 
blue shade painted across them, leaving them quite 
legible, but intended to show you that those are night 
times, without adding the p.m. or a.m., which sometimes 
carried through two or three days and nights, confuses 
you. It is well known that the Jews begin their day at 
6. a.m., and their night at 6 p.m. each lasting twelve 
hours. The recurrence to this old mode of dividing 
the day and night, and the darkening of the hours 
indicating the latter, is a great improvement on our 
railway time tables. On another side you are informed 
where there is to be a Table d'hote, and other species 
of refreshment, what are the " Schlafvorrichtungen," 
or sleeping arrangements in the carriages, and the 
" Zollabfertigung," or revision of luggage in the Custom 
Houses, besides other information, valuable to the 
traveller on the line. 

By Jove ! Here we are at Dirschau, a town in 
ancient Poland, and crossing the frozen Vistula, a river 
familiar to my school days, and now we are going over 
its magnificent bridge, half a mile long, leaving Dantzig 
on our left, where the deals come from ; De'il take it ! 
as on opening the window to look out, there came such 
a cold blast from its gulf ; if he had it, he might warm it 
up a bit ; and now we look out for Marienburg, and 



14 

its Palace of the Ancient Grand Masters of the Teutonic 
Order, who nearly had their own house about their ears 
on one occasion when they were besieged in it. The 
Meisters Remter, or chapter house of the order, in 
which assemblies of the order were held and foreign 
ambassadors received, for they were great swells in 
those times, rests on a single pillar of granite in the 
centre. The Poles, while besieging the City in 1410, 
endeavoured to aim a cannon ball so as to shoot away 
this pillar, and overwhelm at one blow beneath the 
ruins, the. Grand Master and all his Knights, whom 
they knew from the information of a deserter, to be at 
the time assembled in conclave. The ball missed its 
aim, but lodged in a corner of the chimney where it still 
remains. 

Konigsberg, once the capital of Prussia-proper, and 
now third city in the Prussian dominions. There, in 
the Schlosskirche, Frederick, Elector of Brandenburg, 
in 1701, placed the crown on his own head, assuming 
the title of Frederick I. King of Prussia, just as the 
present King William of Prussia, and now Emperor of 
Germany, is reported to have done when he came to 
the Throne, and coronetted himself by the Divine will, 
following the example of his ancestor. I am informed 
there is a considerable quantity of amber found all along 
the coast near Konigsberg, and this is how they get it. 
The high winds throw up a vast accumulation of sea- 
weed. The amberfishers go up to their necks, provided 
with nets, by which they draw the weeds to land. The 
amber accumulates in the lower beds of the sea sand 
extending under the Baltic, and when the storms bear 
up the amber earth, the amber is carried to the surface. 

Now we are traversing the frontier of Prussia and 
Kussia, and when we get to Wilna I shall have some- 



15 

thing to say about Napoleon and his calamitous invasion 
of Russia in 1812 ; but although these broad flat plains 
on which we now gaze, covered with snow, are not very 
interesting, there is a talk among us all, that it may not 
be very long before they will have the attention of all 
Europe attracted to them, because here Prussia and 
Russia meet, and their broad and flat expanses of land 
must be the future battle ground, if ever these two 
enormous empires close in deadly conflict, which pray 
God avert. We have seen how the Prussian officers, 
lately invested with the Russian order of Knights of 
St. George, were received by the Emperor Alexander 
at St. Petersburg, and subsequently at Moscow, and 
with what hearty good will the Emperor of all the 
Russias has addressed them on all occasions, winding 
up with his paternal speech at the banquet ; and as 
long as His Majesty lives I trust nothing will occur to 
change his present good feeling towards the Germans ; 
but " here's the rub." The Czarewitch is known to be 
anti-German, and from what I learn here, does not 
smother his sentiments. He is married to the Danish 
Princess Dagmar, sister to our Princess of Wales, and 
in this country, the Czar, when he comes to the throne, 
is an autocrat, and declares war or makes peace on his 
own responsibility, and my observation (limited, 
certainly, but, as far as it goes, trustworthy) is that the 
Russians are beginning to be jealous of the Prussians 
and their late doings, as the Prussians seem to be 
giving themselves " airs " everywhere, which creates 
an antagonistic feeling in the persons " aired," and is 
not calculated to inspire them with a peaceful feeling 
towards their " airers ; " — so do not let us be so sure 
that the French people and the French press are insane, 
in imagining that some day or other the Russians and 



16 

French may not become allies; but here is the bond fide 
frontier at last, and we step out on Russian soil at 
Wierzbolow. Bravo, you Russian Tartars ! I like the 
look of you ! " Good buffet, and plenty of time for 
refreshment ! " I like that, too ; so does Louise, and 
so does Bateson, who, like Dickens' Marchioness, 
" liked her meals in quiet and plenty of 'em." " Change 
carriages, passports and luggage examined." All right, 
we have only nine large portmanteaus and boxes in the 
van, and twelve little parcels in the carriage, which 
have altogether cost to St. Petersburg a mere trifle of 
£.18 or so in excess of the allowance ; but I would not 
be so mean as to say that Loui has had anything to do 
with this limited " baggage ; " however, business first 
and pleasure afterwards, so we at once go about our 
luggage, and then pay our warmest respects to the 
buffet. But now, before I in imagination go into that 
buffet, I will perform my first duty towards the Russians, 
by suggesting to any English custom-house officer, that 
here, in what our true bom Briton might call an 
outlandish place, he would learn a good lesson as to 
how his duty ought to be performed. First of all, 
everything in Russia is colossal, and yet convenient, 
and we find that in a spacious douane, surrounded by a 
circular counter, numbered in divisions, without any 
hurry, bustle, or confusion, all our luggage is taken by 
the porters to a certain definite place, corresponding in 
duplicate to our numbered register ticket ; there the 
van luggage is deposited, and to the same place all the 
small parcels find their way, the officer on duty specifies 
to his Douaniers what his requirements are, and, finding 
that we are a party of British subjects travelling for 
pleasure, and not for trade, he deals most gently with 
our wardrobes, barely regarding even, some new ball 



17 

dresses, which Louise had had separately packed by the 
milliner, fresh from her establishment, in large deal 
boxes. 

The gentlemen of our party, after acknowledging the 
courtesy of the Russian Douane officer, by saluting him 
with their raised hats, all wended their way to the 
" refreshmenting department," as poor Charles Dickens 
called it, and found there yet another example for our 
English, " Mugby Junction." Half-a-dozen hot viands 
to choose from, accompanied by soup, coffee, or wine, 
and all of the best quality and description, served at a 
moment's notice, on table-cloths white as snow, with 
most attentive and respectful waiters ; add to this 
lavatories, with the requisite accompaniments of soap, 
towels, &c, and I leave you to judge of what has been 
talked about as barbarous Russia. 

Here we are, on our first introduction at a frontier 
station, finding more civilization than has happened to 
my lot in many an old country through which I have 
travelled, and you will find that when you have received 
other letters from me, describing our future progress, 
and stay, at all events at St. Petersburg, they will 
contain similar continued experiences, supporting our 
first agreeable impressions. 

Wierzbolow, I find, is 560 miles from the capital, 
where we shall arrive to-morrow evening, so we are 
beginning to be near the end. And now time is up, 
and we must get ourselves into Russian railway quarters 
for the first time. Let me count how many we are : 
Louise, myself, and Bateson, Money, Chambers, 
Isenbeck, and the giant of the blues ; and now let me 
next make a survey of a first-class railway carriage ; 
here it is before me, and it appears to be something 
entirely novel. It has two ends and a middle. Well, 



18 

so have most things ; but how are they arranged ? At 
each end there is a compartment, for say, five sitters, 
but comfortably containing only three passengers, and 
the middle has four small square compartments (two 
on each side of the centre passage), large enough for 
one comfortably to curl up and sleep in although 
evidently intended for more. Well, now outside, just 
in advance of the end compartments, there are doors 
by which you enter a cross passage, leading to a centre 
passage, which takes you to your respective compartments, 
so that by securing for Louise, her maid, and myself, one 
end compartment, and the others taking unto themselves 
the four centre small compartments, we leave the other 
end for stray passengers on the way, or others getting 
in at Wierzbolow. There are two stoves, one of which 
is fixed in the interior division of each of the end 
compartments, so that half the stove is in the carriage, 
and the other half in the cross passage, and as the 
temperature was about 70° Fahrenheit on entering, we 
began to think we should not, at all events, suffer from 
cold on our journey. 

If you can follow this plan, so difficult to describe, 
you will perceive that our party were all, as it were, 
together under one roof, and that we could pay each 
other visits in our respective cabins, as our lumbering, 
old, rolling, but still comfortable carriage, put me much 
in mind of a steamer of the olden time ; and its wheels, 
as they rolled over the frozen rails, sounded just like 
the paddles beating against the waves. 

Louise strongly objected to be stifled with heat in 
Russia, where she had expected to have met her fate by 
frost, and requested me to address myself to the " stove- 
keeper," who accompanies every first-class carriage, to 
reduce it by machinery which they have for that 



19 

purpose, and so I " unearthed " our Eussian fireman 
from a corner of the cross -passage, in which he had 
doubled himself up for a nap ; and now began a series 
of amusing signs and symbols, which continued, with 
varied intermission, between this interesting old man 
and myself during the next twenty-four hours of our 
journey. He was a character in his way, and seemed 
to be a Russian originally from the far interior of 
Siberia, of the Tartar race — brawny and muscular, with 
high cheek-bones, small bright eyes, terribly shaggy 
hair, and a face as broad as it was long — a complete 
parallelogram. We soon got friends after arranging the 
stove to Louise's satisfaction, and with the help of a 
Russian vocabulary I entered into conversation with 
him, and asked him about his age. Answer : His 10 
fingers held up six times and finishing with seven more 
— 67. Are you married ? Answer : Pointing to the 
wedding-ring finger and running round it three times. 
Why, three wives ? Answer : Broad grin and several 
affirmative shakes of the head. How many children ? 
Answer : 19 fingers held up, one hand after the other, 
and then three fingers gently and mournfully doubled 
down — 16 alive and three dead. And so we continued, 
I racking my brain, and sometimes going to Louise for 
inspiration as to how I was to convey to him my 
symbolic questions, which took me some time to invent, 
and then more time to express. Poor old fellow ! We 
treated him to a " go " of our fine old Cognac' out of 
the picnic basket, and his wistful looks towards it when 
he came for directions about the stove, which he 
frequently did, induced one or two more on the journey ; 
but the climax of all occurred when we were nearing 
our destination, when I procured about a dozen small 
Russian silver pieces, and then, concealing them in my 



20 

left hand, I doled them out to him in our cabin one 
after the other. Louise says she shall never forget the 
expression of his face as I proceeded. When animated 
with a smile it became slightly broader than it was long, 
but, when the pieces of silver repeated themselves 
towards the last, the broadness of his face became most 
ludicrous, and even ridiculous, to behold ; his eyes 
brightened, and his mouth extended itself to unusual 
dimensions. At length a revulsion of feeling came over 
him, and brushing away a tear, he caught up both our 
hands, kissed them, retired to his little den, and we 
shall probably see hi-m no more. 

550 miles from St. Petersburg, at " Kowno," where 
on the 22nd June, 1812, the French army crossed the 
Niemen on their advance to Moscow, and some rising 
ground on the opposite bank is still called Napoleon's 
Hill. The town of Kowno was occupied by a large 
corps cVcmnee, and suffered considerably. The remnants 
of the army recrossed the river at the same spot on the 
13th December, in a very bad state of discipline. 
There is a monument existing commemorating this 
retreat, and bearing the following inscription in Russian, 
which, translated, is as follows : — " In 1812 Russia 
was invaded by an arniy numbering 700,000 men. The 
army recrossed the frontier numbering 70,000 ! ! " 

441 miles from St. Petersburg, at " Wilna," occu- 
pied by the French on the 28th June, 1812. It had 
been evacuated by the Russians during the night. The 
Emperor Napoleon occupied the Episcopal Palace, the 
rooms which the Emperor Alexander had left the 
previous day. The country all along here is covered with 
snow, so I cannot form an idea as to its cultivation, but 
the villages are few and far between, and those do not 
exhibit any high degree of prosperity. They are mostly 



21 

composed of wood, somewhat resembling, only in a 

poorer degree, the Swiss mountain chalets. Birds are 

scarce, not liking, probably, to face the deep snow. 

We have only seen two magpies for miles ; but as the 

old couplet says, 

" One magpie is sorrow, two mirth, 
Three a wedding, and four a birth." 

Our two are symbolical of what is going on inside our 
carriage, where we are the j oiliest of parties ; Louise 
holds her levees, when the gentlemen are invited by her 
to our cabin, where the floor is cheerfully occupied by 
those who cannot otherwise be accommodated, and 
cigars and cigarettes are the order of the day, combined 
with pleasant instructive conversation by travelled men, 
interspersed with merry stories. I won't repeat what 
pretty things are said by our fellow travellers to Louise, 
but by general acclamation she is declared to be the 
life and soul of the party, and a splendid traveller. 

Between stations separated by long distances, we 
amuse ourselves with the contents of the picnic basket, 
and having Liebeg's essence, and Fortnum and Mason's 
compressed beef tea, with other delicacies, our Etna 
boils up some water, and we get a capital entertainment 
in the Swiss Family Robinson style. Our cabins are 
now kept by our old friend (if he will allow me the 
privilege of calling him so ; as they say at public 
meetings), at a delicious temperature, but when we issue 
forth at a station, we all don our complete suit of furs, 
as the air is nipping cold, but full of oxygen, and ozone, 
as the country is overlaid for hundreds, and even 
thousands of miles, with its wintry covering of snow, 
and we are warned by a notice not to put our heads out 
of the little window of our cabin, which is only a foot 



22 

square, as " Cette imprudence pouvait avoir des con- 
sequences grc But with our splendid shubas, caps, 
boots, and gloves, it is impossible even to feel a shiver, 
with many more degrees of frost than we have had yet. 
"We get most delicious coffee at the buffets, and still 
more delicious tea, served in tumblers for the gentlemen, 
and cups for the ladies, with milk, that the Russians 
are not jet sufficiently civilised to adulterate with 
unwholesome materials, and notice is given you of the 
starting of the train by three bells first pealing on: side 
the station, and repeated by an official at the refresh- 
ment-room door, rung successfully at intervals of a few 
minutes — the first a notice, the second a warning, and 
the third, we're off. All along the line the men live in 
wood huts, which are all numbered outside with white 
paint, starting from the capital, so you can count off 
your approximation to the end of your journey as you 
go along. And now the numbers are gradually diminish- 
ing, until at length St. Petersburg bursts upon our view, 
with its colossal public buildings, its gorgeous palaces, 
and churches with gilded cupolas ; Sleighs with fast- 
trotting horses are awaiting us, into which we get with 
alacrity, leaving our luggage to the commissionaire of 
the hotel to bring after us, and we drive off at the rate of 
twelve miles an hour over the frozen snow to the E . /. 
de Puissie. where we find, as we ordered by telegram, 
wami baths, comfortably heated rooms, a dinner a la 
:■:, all awaiting our kind attention; more of which 
anon. 

I remain, my dear John, 

Your affectionate brother, 

E. RICHABDSON-GABDNEB. 



23 



Hotel de Russie, 

St. Peteksburg, 

29th Dec. 1871-10*7* Jan. 1872. 



My dear John, 



I think I bade you " Adieu " in my last as our 
sleighs dashed up to the door of this hotel, and we all 
dismounted, to find everything prepared for our 
reception, including a Diner -a-la-Russe, served Russian 
fashion ; but as we have already received the hospitality 
of our Russian friends by assisting (as the French say) 
at more than one entertainment of that kind on a more 
elaborate scale, I will reserve a description of that 
important ceremony until I come to such events in the 
natural course of things, and now only describe our 
domicile to you as we find ourselves inhabiting it. 

We are located on the belle Stage of this hotel, which 
being the first hotel in St. Petersburg, is probably the 
best in all Russia. Our suite of rooms is, as it were, 
a little house all within itself, as we have a reception 
room about sixteen feet high, and large in proportion, 
elegantly, and even sumptuously, famished ; ditto bed- 
room, servants' rooms, and an entrance lobby, with 
front door and bell, where visitors disrobe themselves 
of their huge fur shubas and overboots, and where our 
Russian dragoman is in attendance to assist when we 
are " at home." We have two excellent lithographs of 
the Prince of Wales in our windows, of which we 



24 

procured twenty copies before leaving London to present 
to our friends here, who are delighted to receive them. 
They are excellent likenesses by Maclure and Macdonald. 
We had a capital letter from James the other day, in 
which he said he should be prepared to hear from us, 
that, " In Russia cold was not cold, snow was not snow, 
and that ice was not ice, except in the shape of ice 
creams." But I can assure you, paradoxical as it may 
seem, that d either I nor Louise, who is peculiarly 
sensitive to climate, have felt a shiver since we have 
been here. Our rooms are kept at an invariable tem- 
perature of 65 degrees Fahrenheit; the windows are 
all double and airtight, so thus there are no draughts. 
When the front door opens, as the passages are all 
heated alike, there is no rush of cold air, and when we 
go out we wear all the warm furs that I have previously 
described to you. As you wish me to give you all details 
with regard to our sojourn in Russia — a country so 
little known, and not half appreciated — I will comply 
with your request by giving you, to begin with, the 
price of our rooms as 12 roubles (equal to 33s. a day), 
taken for three or four weeks certain. 

I do not say Russia is a cheap country to live in, 
either for native or foreigner ; on the contrary, I must 
admit at once that it is very dear, as there are 
comparatively only two classes in the country — the 
nobles, or wealthy landowners, and the working classes, 
or peasants. The first are, for the most part rich, 
profuse, and reckless — extravagant, sometimes even to 
folly, and totally regardless of the prices paid by them 
for anything that they want, and which, when required, 
must be had irrespective of cost. The second, until 
lately absolute serfs, have not yet attained even to the 



25 

comforts of life beyond the natural requirements of 
existence. For the first, St. Petersburg has become the 
emporium of all the refinements and luxuries that 
not only the length and breadth of Europe can produce, 
but to which Asia has also largely contributed, so that, 
whether it be summer or winter, fruits of the rarest quality, 
vegetables, and flowers, and all the delicacies in season, or 
out of season, can equally well be procured for the bit of 
paper stamped with the Imperial arms and Crown, and 
representing roubles, more or less. Under these 
circumstances, ''Put money in thy purse " when thou 
comest to Russia, and I will back the Russians to 
empty it for you ; " 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been 
slave to thousands." 

Well, now, where shall I begin ? My head is full of 
the thousand and one things I have to tell you about, 
and the very multiplicity of them is my difficulty. We 
are in St. Michael's Square, in the very heart of 
St. Petersburg, with the Nobility Club adjoining us, and 
the splendid Corinthian Palace of the Grand Duchess 
Helen opposite us ; and as I get up to consider and 
look out of the window, and wonder how I am to 
begin, my attention is arrested, or distracted, by the 
Grand Duchess's seven dogs, just let out for their 
morning's gambol into the square, to disport themselves 
in the snow. They are playing with an old hat, and 
the " little wee dog " has got inside, and the others are 
bowling him over and over, and enjoying the fun. 

I have made up my mind that I must take my text 
from the Admiralty — not Childers', or Goschen's, but 
someone's with a precious long name, which I fear to 
write, and endeavour from that point cfajjpui to give 
you a slight idea of the topography of the town. 



26 

The Admiralty is an oblong square, -with its back to 
the iiver Neva on its north side, and its front of half 
an English mile in length on the south side, facing a 
large square or place bearing its name. Its fcwc sides 
or ends are each 650 English feet long. In the middle 
pari of this edifice is the principal entrance, over which 
floats, as it were, a light and graceful spire, centred 
in which is a clock. Now, tonsider yourself loc.te a 
in this clock, and I will endeavour to direct its long 
hand so that it may point out to you the great town in 
front of it, and its short hand the lesser town behind it. 

By making the long hand point at a right angle to the 
face of the clock, over the Admiralty "Ploschad" or 
square, it will shew you a street in a direct line with 
itself, stretching straight away for a distance of about 
two miles. This street is called Gorokhovaia Sbeet 
The long hand must now t saz a little to the right, and 
it _ ~11 point straight down anothe- street, abou: fcwc 
and a half miles long, which street is called Yosnesenski 
Prospekt. Again, it bears as much to the left of the 
centre as i: did to the right, and it will point straight 
down the largest and longest street of the three. This 
is t'ae principal street :: Si Petersburg, half as wide 
again as Regent Street, and about three miles long, and 
lied the Nevsfci Prospekt. These streets start :."_ 
the Adm ir alty place, not far from each other, but, by 
bearing away from one another, form themselves into 
the shape of a fan, of which the clock might be the 
handle, so that if you place yourself at the forth 
end of either of them, you would still have a view of 
the clock, and from the clock you can see to their 
remotest end. All the other streets are, without 
option, broad and convenient, blind alleys and 



27 

i 
narrow lanes being wholly unknown. The cross streets 

even would be thought, in most continental towns, to 
be quite spacious enough for main streets. 

Surrounding and contiguous to the Admiralty 
Ploschad, we have a succession of palaces, noble build- 
ings, and monuments. Among them are the Winter 
Palace, the residence of the Emperor and his Court 
during winter. The huge pile is four stories high, or 
about 80 feet, the frontage is about 455 feet in length, 
and the breadth 350 feet. The Hermitage, a grand 
museum, erected in the Greek style, and which for 
elegance, purity of architectural form, and for the 
beauty, as well as for the costliness of the materials 
employed, has scarcely an equal in Europe. It forms a 
parallelogram 515 feet by 375, and is approached by a 
noble vestibule, supported by ten immense Caryatides of 
grey granite, measuring 22 feet with their pedestals. 
It is connected with the palace by an arch in the form 
of a bridge. The Isaac Cathedral, dedicated to St. 
Isaac, of Dalmatia, a building of grand proportions, and 
of a simple but lofty style of architecture, with noble 
porticoes, supported by huge Monolith pillars of Finland 
granite, 60 feet high, and seven feet diameter, said to be 
the largest Monoliths in the world. The Hotel de 
l'Etat-Major, the Foreign Office, the War Office, the 
Senate, and the Synod, the Statues of Peter the Great, 
and Alexander the First. As I do not intend to enter 
into long descriptions, I can only say that wherever the 
long hand of the clock can point on the south side of the 
Neva, it could not cover one hundred yards of ground 
without encountering marble palaces, churches, monu- 
ments, and public buildings, which must be seen to be 
appreciated. 



28 

And now, if we suppose the short hand to be pointing 
towards the north, right across the river Neva, it will 
show you the Fortress and Cathedral of St. Peter and 
St. Paul, the Exchange, the Academy of Sciences, the 
Academy of Arts, the School of Marine Cadets, the 
School of Mines, &c. The most interesting features of 
the interior of those buildings and churches, I shall 
touch upon in the course of my epistle. 

The first thing to do when you arrive here is to engage 
a " Dragoman," who can speak your language and his 
own ; and the second thing is to know how to hail a 
" Droshki Sleigh." Well, we have done the first by 
engaging a native, of the name of Ivan Michael 
Timofeieff, during our stay in the country, at a salary 
of three roubles a day, and all expenses paid. (N.B., 
three copecks are about one penny, 100 copecks make 
one rouble, and one rouble is two shillings and nine- 
pence ; this is all the information you require about the 
Russian coinage). As Ivan is likely to go with us to 
Moscow, Smolensk, Wilna, and Warsaw, and will neces- 
sarily have to be occasionally mentioned, you might like 
to make his acquaintance, so I beg to inform you that 
Ivan is a true born Russian, 42 years of age, exactly 
five feet nothing high in his boots (I measured him by 
stratagem), is married to a very tall woman, and has a 
family of six children. He was born, and continued to 
be a serf until emancipated by the present Emperor 
Alexander's ukase, was several years Chasseur of the 
American Embassy, more especially when Cassius Clay 
was minister, speaks English pretty well, Russian I 
suppose better. Although a very small man, he has a 
wonderful presence, and orders about the big Droshki 
men, and porters, with a most distinguished air of 



29 

superiority, and what's more they obey him. They 
have christened him John the Terrible, after one of 
Russia's most autocratic despots. His success comes, 
I think from his intellectual head, which is immense 
for his size, in fact, the whole contour of his person 
reminds me, on a small scale, of the great Emperor 
Napoleon, so much so that when he draws himself up 
to give his commands, I honour him with the designa- 
tion of that great general. By means of copecks 
judiciously administered, he can always get the guar- 
dians of public places to give us good positions, to see 
what is to be seen, and when these guardians are 
beyond the reach of Ivan's bribes he accosts them with 
his hat off and bowing to the ground, saying, " An 
Englis nobblemann and nobbleladye presents their com- 
plements," &c, &c. Oh, Ivan ! Ivan ! He knows 
everything and everybody, or pretends to, which is 
much the same, and he is so clever and has such a good 
memory, that if ever he tells me a " white one " he 
remembers it, and although I occasionally lay a trap for 
him I can't catch him. He is an honest little fellow in 
money matters, and that is a great virtue here, perhaps 
I might say anywhere with men of his class, or perhaps 
with other classes too ; so that if any of our friends 
come to Russia and want a dragoman they could not do 
better than write to Ivan Michael Timofeieff, Hotel 
Klee, St. Petersburg, and he will engage rooms at the 
hotel or meet them at the railway, or do any other 
commission that may be required ; and now I have 
done Ivan a good turn I will proceed. Where was I ? 
Oh ! the droshki sleigh, and how to hail it ; convert the 
final P of his worship into K, pronounce it as one word 
quickly, rolling the R, and you get my elegant invention 



30 

of a Eussian word hisworshik, which will bring you a 
droshki sleigh in a moment, and you will be surprised 
at the progress you have made in the language. But 
you will say, what is a droshki sleigh ? It is a cab, not 
a four-wheeler or a hansom, but a little box, which is 
the droshki, fitted on to two slides, which is the sleigh, 
altogether about 2| feet from the ground. The seat is 
very narrow, and can only be intended for one person 
to sit on, and the driver perches himself in front of you 
on a curious apparatus in a semicircular form, with one 
leg in a receptacle and one dangling out over the side, 
with a great horse " displaying immense symmetry of 
bone " dragging you along at a tremendous pace, whose 
tail is considerably higher than your head. If you are 
a small party of two you may still manage, after some 
experience, to sit in the droshki sleigh by holding on by 
each other ; but it is attended with some risk, especially 
round the corners, until you are Bussianised, and con- 
sequently expert. 

Our square is just out of the principal street, Nevski 
Prospekt, about 1^ mile down from the clock, and now 
let us step out into the Nevski and see what is going 
on. Fortunately, there is a large, two-horsed droshki 
sleigh, licensed to carry two or more, so I hail him with 
hisworshik, which brings him to us immediately, and 
as this is all the Eussian I know Ivan bargains with 
him for a drive round the town per hour. (By-the-bye, 
I must omit from all things dear the droshkis, they are 
the only reasonable things in Eussia.) We have two 
good, black horses, and they take us down the Nevski 
at a rattling pace over the snow, the road being wide 
enough for a division into two roads, one for updriving 
and one for downdriving ; and now I will mention a few 



31 

of the following objects of interest as we go along : — 
The Palace of the Czarevitch, fortunately meeting the 
Princess Dagmar just coming out in her sleigh, who 
looked so well and returned our respectful salute. You 
may always know the Czaritsa's (the Empress's) 
carriage and the Czarievna's (the Crown Princess's) 
carriage by their Cossack footmen being special to them. 
The Alexander Nevski Monastery and Church, the 
archiepiscopal seat of the metropolitan of St. Petersburg, 
the Taurida Palace, built by Catherine II. in 1783, and 
given by her to Field Marshal Potemkin after he had 
conquered the Crimea and received the submission of 
the King of Georgia; the Prosbragenski Church, which 
belongs to one of the oldest regiments of guards, founded 
by Peter the Great, and is adorned within and without 
with trophies taken from conquered nations. The 
railing that surrounds the churchyard is formed of 
Turkish and French cannon, looped together by large 
chains gracefully twined, producing a very pleasing 
effect. The Palace de Justice, where justice is now 
administered on the basis of open trial by jury, a reform 
which came into operation at Moscow and St. Peters- 
burg in 1865, during the present Emperor's reign. A 
great mansion, where the Emperor's servants and their 
families are lodged. The Emperor employs the unpre- 
cedented number of 2,000 servants, half of whom are 
always on duty, the other half off, and their families are 
all lodged under one roof. What would Sir Charles 
Dilke say to this small establishment ? The New 
Arsenal ; and then we come to the Summer Garden, the 
Hyde Park of St. Petersburg. In former days the sons 
and daughters of Russian merchants and tradesmen, 
dressed in their best apparel, assembled in this garden 



32 

on Whit-Monday to choose partners for life; but the 
custom is now almost obsolete. At the entrance of the 
garden, facing the river, is a chapel, dedicated to the 
patron saint of the Emperor, marking the spot where 
he stood when his life was attempted by Karakozoff in 
1866. The chapel was raised by public subscription, 
and is therefore a monument of the love and sympathy 
of the Eussian people, to whom the present Czar has 
much endeared himself. I give you the story s of this 
attempt as it has been communicated to me. 

It seems there was a peasant, who had intended to 
cross the frozen river Neva, to proceed to the Cathedral 
of St. Peter and St. Paul to attend the service there ; 
but, finding the ice breaking up, he changed his mind, 
and was directing his steps to another cathedral, that 
of Kazan, on this side of the river, when, observing a 
crowd standing near the gate of the Summer Garden in 
order to catch a glimpse of the Czar, he stopped too, 
and got himself into a good place. Presently the Czar 
came out of the garden, accompanied by his daughter, 
when the peasant felt himself rudely pushed by some 
one on his right, and looking round, was just in time to 
knock up the uplifted arm of the assassin Karakozoff, 
whose finger was on the trigger of his pistol, and the 
ball of which thus passed harmlessly into the air instead 
of into the body of the Czar. The assassin was seized, 
and the peasant, frightened out of his life, took to his 
heels. With the celebrated General Todleben in 
pursuit, he was soon overtaken, led to the Palace, and 
presented to the Emperor and Empress as the peasant 
who had saved the Emperor's life. They both embraced 
him, and the Czar then and there proclaimed him 
hereafter as a noble of the land. Special emissaries were 



33 

immediately despatched for the new noble's wife, who 
lived in a house which we have seen, and is situated in 
a street leading out of " Sadovaia " Street, and called 
"Apraxin Pereulok," to acquaint her with her good 
fortune, and to take her by order of the Czar to the 
Palace. The poor woman was busy preparing her own 
and her husband's dinner against his return, and when 
the officers entered was terribly frightened, believing 
her husband had fallen into some trouble and had been 
sent to prison, and they were come to fetch her also. 
However, she was soon undeceived, but the orders were 
she was to return with them immediately, so the noble lady 
was not even allowed to " tidy herself," but was carried 
straight off to the Empress, where we must leave the 
two women of high and low degree to feel that " touch 
of nature which makes the whole world kin." The 
peasant and his wife now rank among the nobility of 
Russia, and the peasant is an officer in the Emperor's 
service. 

And now we drive along the Court quay and the 
English quay for a distance of two or three miles, 
passing palaces and magnificent mansions facing the 
river, which are occupied by the Grand Dukes and 
other scions of the Royal House, besides the Russian 
nobles, and wealthy landowners, bankers, and merchants. 
The Grand Duke Constantine's palace is of marble, and 
there is a beautiful new palace just built for the Grand 
Duke Yladimir, the Czar's second son, and so on, with 
a never ending variety of grand architecture of all styles 
and ages. While we are fighting at home about a 
design for our law courts, why do not some of our 
architects run over here and copy a style if they can't 
invent it. 

Over • the Neva, frozen three feet deep, driven in our 



34 

sleighs, with our horses at a gallop, there's a sensation 
for you ! It was for us, and Louise, although a little 
alarmed at first at beincr actually on the surface of a 
great river in a chariot, soon became familiarised with 
it, and would have another turn. Back again, over a 
bridge of elegant iron arches, on magnificent granite 
piers, which was erected by the late Czar Nicholas, 
and cost a very large sum of money. The poor people 
here think that it is in the power of the Czar to print 
as many bank notes as he likes for the use of himself 
and his friends, so Ivan informs us, that it is commonly 
said among them that the bridge only cost the Czar 
•401bs. of old rags. And now across the Admiralty 
Place, past your friend the clock, and down the Nevski 
to our hotel, having seen more marvellous modern 
architecture than you can possibly see in any other city 
in Europe, or any other two put together. 

The Russians date their civilisation from Peter the 
Great, and worship his memory ; and well they may, 
as this great place has been all built from its foundations 
in 168 years, St. Petersburg being founded by Peter in 
1703, and converted by his indomitable perseverance 
from a swamp into a palatial city, now containing a vast 
population, the Czar himself superintending the works 
in person, and dwelling in a small cottage, which we 
have this day visited. 

The day after our drive, we took a walk, and found 
at every step something to interest us. I know no 
place where your attention is so unceasingly occupied 
by ordinary sights in the streets as at St. Petersburg, 
and what is it which strikes us first ? Why, the great 
number of shrines of Saints, which are constantly 
meeting your eye, and the marvellous devotion shown 
by the people as they pass them ; not one but takes 



35 

his hat off and crosses himself, bowing three times as 
he does so to the Shrine which engages his attention, 
and they do this not only when immediately near, but 
even in passing at the end of a cross street, and they 
see a Shrine in the distance, so that one is constantly 
wondering what the people can be bowing to ; but, 
remember, that is all done from perfect devotion to 
their faith, an example of which we witnessed on the 
Russian Christmas-day in their Cathedral, and which I 
shall describe to you further on. 

One curious little incident occurred to me during our 
perambulation. I must tell you that during the 
election at Windsor, there was a queer old fellow, an 
Eton College waterman, of the name of Cannon, more 
familiarly known as " Sparrow," who never missed 
attending any of my political meetings, and when I had 
been holding forth for some time, he invariably brought 
me a glass of ale, saying, " Colonel, you can't give me 
one, but I can treat you," and I always accepted it 
with much satisfaction. Well, poor old Sparrow had a 
little wife, * a very tidy, neat, little woman, who had, of 
course, seen better days, and her peculiarity was to 
always stop in the street when she saw me coming a 
long way off, and commence a series of bows, which 
seemed as if they would never come to an end. Of 
course I always spoke to her, and asked kindly after her 
beneficent husband. Now, crossing a street here, I 
came suddenly upon a little woman, the exact counter- 
part of Mrs. Sparrow ; and there she was bowing 
away just like my little old friend. Well, with what 
Mr. Pickwick would call, my " Native politeness," and 
my Windsor experiences, I forgot for the moment where 
I was ; so up I went to the little old woman, and said, 
" How dy'e do, mum ? How is Sparrow ? " when she 



36 

crossed herself three times, and not even noticed me ; 
and then I remembered I had never seen Mrs. Sparrow 
do the one or neglect the other, and the conscious- 
ness of the little old woman being a Eussian, and a 
Devotee, immediately recnrred to my mind, and I sidled 
off as best I could. 



And, so, farewell until my next, 

Your affectionate brother, 

E. EICHAEDSOX-G-AEDXEE. 



37 

Hotel de Russie, 

St. Petersburg, 

1-lSth January, 1872. 



My dear John, 



At length we have both got into the year 
1872. This is New Year's day in Russia, on which 
occasion the Czar of all the Russias holds a grand 
levee in the Winter Palace, at which all the Diplomatic 
Corps, the great Ministers of State, the heads of the 
different departments, the highest naval and military 
officers, and the grandees of all kinds from his immense 
dominions are present, to do homage to the Chief of 
the State and the head of the Church, and a very 
splendid ceremony it is. You are aware that we had 
some excellent introductions to Russians of position at 
St. Petersburg, who have done everything in their power 
to make our visit agreeable to us, and it was suggested 
that as we had both been presented at our own court, 
if our names were sent to Prince Gortchakoff by the 
English representative at this court, His Majesty the 
Emperor would probably receive me, and her Majesty 
the Empress receive Louise at a presentation ; and 
further that through the influential friends we possess, 
it might be followed by an invitation to the grand new 
year's ball which takes place next week at the Palace. 
Well, all this has come about, as I had the honour of 
being presented to His Majesty the Emperor this 
morning, and was thus enabled to witness the mag- 
nificent and gorgeous state by which he is surrounded. 



38 

Louise is to be presented to the Empress at the ball, to 
which we have both received invitations. 

As you would probably like to know something of 
the state kept up in the northern capital of Europe, I 
will give you a short description of how things appeared 
to me. I left my hotel in my uniform of deputy- 
lieutenant, and proceeded to the Palace, alighting at the 
entrance for the Diplomatic Corps, where I met our re- 
presentative, who is acting as Charge d'affaires, until 
the arrival of Lord Augustus Loftus, who is the lately 
appointed xlmbassador, and we proceeded to the recep- 
tion room appointed for us, after which we were even- 
tually ushered into the throne-room where the presenta- 
tions take place, passing by on our way, a magnificent 
suite of rooms, adorned by pictures of the reigning 
Royal Family, and other rare works of art. There I 
had the honour of being presented to, among many 
others, Prince Dolgorouki (grand master of the 
ceremonies), Count Schuvaloff, and the man of all others 
I much wished to see, Prince Gortchakoff (the prime 
minister of the Czar), and of course a European 
celebrity — his latest feat being the haK-persuading and 
half-frightening the western powers — England in par- 
ticular — with Gladstone at its head, into annulling that 
part of the Black Sea treaty for which England's gold 
was expended, and England's blood was shed in the 
Crimean war. 

After waiting some time, a grand cortege approached, 
and the procession, reaching the whole length of an im- 
mense ball-room, ushered into our room their Imperial 
Majesties the Czar and the Empress, accompanied by 
the Crown Princess (the Princess Dagmar, sister to the 
Princess of Wales), with the Crown Prince, the Grand 
Duke Vladimir, the Princess Mary, the Grand Dukes 



39 

Nicholas and Constantine, and the remaining members 
of the Royal family at St. Petersburg. Preceding them 
came the officers of state, then an army of grand 
chamberlains, and chamberlains in court dress, elegantly 
overlaid with gold embroidery, and bearing wands -of 
office, and after their Majesties came a bevy of beauty, 
consisting of about fifty of the ladies of the court in 
attendance on the Empress, wearing the rarest jewels 
and gems. The mode of presentation here is different 
to that adopted at our Court, and I think very much in 
favour of the Court at St. Petersburg. The Czar and 
the Empress both proceed round the room one after 
the other, with a little interval, and after conversing 
with the leading diplomatists, at length arrive where 
you are anxiously awaiting them. They then each, on 
your being presented to them separately, converse with 
you, on your name, &c, being announced, and I need 
not say have the tact to say something that is agree- 
able to yourself or your nation. The Czar spoke to me, 
among other things, of the Yolunteers, admired the 
patriotic spirit they had displayed in enrolling them- 
selves, and especially their motto of " Defence not 
defiance," and the Empress also very graciously ad- 
dressed me subsequently. Her Majesty wore a low 
dress, with a long train of blue velvet, trimmed with 
Russian sable, and such diamonds and pearls. The 
Princess Dagmar has the same beautiful intelligent eyes 
as her sister, and I should have known her from the 
similitude in that feature alone, among all the ladies of 
the Court. She wore a white silk dress, covered with 
rare silver embroidery, and her ornaments were also 
diamonds and pearls. The Empress alone wore a train. 
After the presentations the Royal Family proceeded 
through the remaining rooms, "where there were hundreds 



40 

ranged on each side to receive them, bowing as they 
went, and receiving the respectful salutations of all. 

The guard of honour was composed of Cossacks 
in one room, and of the Chevaliers of the Garde in 
another, and I was very much struck to-day, as I was 
some time ago, to see what a physiognomical resem- 
blance there is among the men composing the regiments 
here. Passing by a barrack the other day, when the 
regiment of the Emperor Paul was just marching in, I 
stopped to observe them, and looking into their faces 
was intensely amused to see they were each " alike as 
two peas." One fellow with a celestial nose has a 
comical appearance, but fancy 500 passing before you, 
all with noses looking towards Heaven. After they had 
gone in, I had a good laugh, and turned to Ivan for the 
explanation, when he informed me that the men, bearing 
a resemblance to each other, are draughted into the 
same regiments, and that this one especially is a 
" celestial," the late Emperor Paul, who founded it, 
having been a celestial. 

This brings me back into the streets again, and to 
the market here, where we were offered one night by 
the industrious vendors, anything, from a sucking pig 
to a defunct wolf, which we were invited to buy, and 
take home in our pockets. You need not go far here to 
find what you want, as the shops in the principal 
streets have everything displayed in tempting variety, 
and in the market streets, the outside of the shops, 
doors, balustrades, porticoes, &c, are covered with 
actual pictures of almost each article they sell. If you 
take your stand before a boot shop, and require a 
certain kind of boot or shoe (you need not enter if not 
inclined), until you have discovered they have the 



41 

pattern you require, which you can do by examining 
all the pictures outside of every variety of boot and 
shoe they have within, but if you do enter, do not 
forget, however humble the dwelling, to take off your 
hat, first of all, out of respect to the tenant, and 
secondly, to the Shrine of the Virgin, or of the Saint 
which you always find placed in a corner of the room, 
whom the tenant particularly patronises, or who 
patronises him. 

Wet nurses are a grand institution here, and when 
engaged in a lady's family, have a fine time of it, if 
one may judge by the magnificence of their appearance 
when they are out for an airing. They are arrayed in 
very pretty and very remarkable looking dresses, 
consisting of the Russian head ornament, which rises 
two or three inches above the forehead, and is covered 
with narrow silver braid, the gown and pelisse of bright 
blue or red cloth, ornamented also with broad silver 
braid, and the remainder of the costume quite in" 
keeping with the above. When dressed in blue, it 
denotes that it is a little boy, who is the recipient of their 
bounty, and when in red, that it is a little girl. The 
Tartar hawkers are queer looking fellows ; they sell all 
kinds of cotton goods in the streets, slung over their 
shoulders, and combining the gayest and most fantastic 
colours. Observe " Hisworshik," the Droshki man, 
bargaining for a sash he wants to present to his 
sweetheart for a New Year's gift. He is very cautious, 
and wets the sash with his finger, and rubs hard to 
ascertain whether the dye is hard and fast. We hear 
a tremendous hallooing in the distance, and presently 
comes past a fire brigade man, mounted on a galloping 
steed, clearing the way for the fire engine, which is 



42 

following closely after him. (We might adopt the 
" avant courier" with advantage). There are a score 
of fire towers all over the town, on top of which are 
located watchers night and day, and by signals by day, 
and by lamps at night, give notice from each tower to 
he other when and where a fire takes place. (This 
system we might also adopt with still farther advantage). 
The police are fine fellows here, and are admirably 
constituted. Some time ago a brave member of the 
force stopped a Troika, the three horses of which were 
running away and making for the crowded " Nevski," 
which, if it had reached, several persons must have 
been killed. The poor fellow was knocked down, but 
held on, though severely and mortally wounded. He 
was carried home, where he survived for some weeks, 
during which the Emperor visited him in person, gave 
him a distinguished order of merit, and assured him 
that his wife and children should have his especial care. 
This makes heroes of the men, as they know that 
their Czar's eye is, as it were, upon them, humble though 
they be. The Czar is the father of his people, and 
always addresses his soldiers as "my children," and 
the orphans of the military, as well as of others who 
have served the state, have establishments provided 
for their maintenance and education. 

We were stopped on our walk this morning by a 
friend, who asked us if we had heard about the accident 
which had happened to Rushem-Pacha, the Turkish 
ambassador at this court, and he went on to relate that 
the ambassador had gone bear-hunting, and after having 
lodged a shot in the animal he attacked, the bear 
rushed upon him, and after discharging his revolver a 
second time without effect, the ambassador was obliged 



43 

to have recourse to his poignard, and as the bear 
advanced, he drove this instrument down the animal's 
throat, but his own arm went with it, which Bruin 
terribly mangled before he could extricate it. At the 
same time the ambassador got his face much torn by 
one of the animal's paws, which, it is feared, will 
very much disfigure the ambassador. The Russian 
peasant who was with him took to his heels, but the 
bear was eventually shot by another attendant, and 
thus released the Pacha from any further trouble with 
the monstrous brute. Now, you must not think by this 
account that there is always as much danger in this 
sport as attended this particular instance, but the 
ambassador wanted all the glory by going comparatively 
alone, and the consequence was he got all the pain; 
they usually go out in large numbers, and the Emperor 
is very much addicted to it and is an excellent bear shot. 
And now I must confide a secret to you. A friend of 
mine who is in possession of a bear's lair has formed a 
party to hunt him, and I have gladly accepted an in- 
vitation to join them, as it is the thing to do in Russia, 
but I much fear that after this unfortunate accident, 
Louise will not exactly consent to it. However, " Nous 
verrons." If I do go I will give you a full account of 
our adventure if the bear will •permit me. Wolves 
form also very good sport. They are found in con- 
siderable numbers not far from St. Petersburg, as well 
as all over Russia. Another of my friend's expeditions, 
in which I am invited to take part, is a trip to Finland 
in a troika for the purpose of shooting the wolf. It 
seems that you take with you in your troika a live pig 
in a bag, and that when you get near the woods where 
you expect to find wolves you squeeze the pig, which 



44 

makes him squeak, hearing which out come the wolves ; 
the party then secure their opportunity by taking a 
shot at them. If one or more is killed you can't get at 
them, because if a male the rest of the pack remain to 
devour him, and if a female she is left where she falls, 
but war to the death is now waged between you and the 
wolves, their gallantry is called upon to revenge the 
premature death of one of their ladies, and you must 
keep on shooting a male, whom they will always stop 
to devour or get away from the scene of your exploits 
by galloping to more open country. In cases of 
difficulty, where the sportsmen are nervous and not 
good shots, or when ammunition is expended, in order 
to stop the wolves the pig is thrown overboard, and 
then if necessary one of the horses is killed and cast 
adrift, and sometimes even a second horse, leaving only 
one to pursue the journey, but all this is of course to 
give you time to get away, and to continually stop the 
wolves in their pursuit when they are infuriated and 
famished ; because as long as you oblige the wolves 
with one of themselves, provided it is a male, or any 
other animal, yourself included, they remain to partake 
of your generous liberality. 

But I don't think I have told you anything about 
the famous carriages of the country, the "troika" and 
the " chetverka." The first is a large car on a sleigh, 
drawn by three horses abreast, and holds four people 
inside, besides the driver, who stands in a sort of 
receptacle for his legs just inside the splash board. 
The centre horse has a grand and gorgeous yoke, 
which attaches him to the shafts, and the outside 
horses run along in traces. The harness is brilliant 
with silver plating, but, best of all, the pace they go 



45 

at is most exhilarating, when you get into the open 
country, where the snow is in good condition for 
sledging, or, still better, on the ice on the river, or on 
the Gulf of Finland, and the driver exhorts his horses 
to increased action simply by his voice and the 
language he uses to them, which they seem perfectly 
to understand. Off they go at full gallop, which gives 
you the nearest idea to what must be the delightful 
sensation of flying, of which you can possibly conceive, 
and for miles and miles they will continue stretching 
away at a glorious pace, although, from the appearance 
of the animals, you would hardly consider them capable 
of it, but they are "very little fellows, and as hard as 
nails." 

A " chetverka " is a four-horse carriage, but not 
used so much on a sleigh as on wheels in the summer. 
The four horses are harnesed abreast, but their 
position and action while in motion is most curious. 
The pair in the centre do most of the work and the 
outsiders represent effect, and in order to give you an 
idea of the appearance they present, first of all, 
imagine them to be all looking and standing straight to 
the front. Well, we will leave the centre horses in 
this position, and give our word of command to the 
near and off horses one after the other. Now for the 
horse on the near side. Attention ! Left face ! Left 
wheel ! March ! And just as he has complied with your 
instructions, and put out his left or near leg, to 
commence the march and wheel, halt him. And then 
you have him as he commences his gallop when started 
off. For the horse on the off side you reverse your 
word of command as regards his wheel, which must be 
right wheel, and you get both your horses facing 



46 

outwards, and causing the four to present from the 
front the shape of an extended fan. Messrs. Passmore 
& Son, of Windsor, are bnilding a new char-a-banc for 
Louise to drive her team of ponies in, bnt we are so 
delighted with the appearance of the chetverka, that 
she has asked me to break her little Exmoors into 
going four abreast, so that she mar drive them 
occasionally in her char-a-banc in the Russian 
fashion. 

We had a delightful drive in our troika one evening 
last week to the " Ice Hills,"' which afford much 
amusement here in winter. We had a few friends to 
dine with us, and after dinner our troikas were ordered 
round, and away we went up the Xevski, over the 
river Xeva, with temporary lamp-posts erected on the 
ice, to direct the way, and arrived at fall gallop at our 
destination. When we had mounted an immense flight 
of steps to get to the top of the ice hill, we reached a 
platform, from which you perceived a very precipitate 
lescent of glittering ice, extending for some consider- 
able distance. There you find the Russian guides, 
with their long flat pieces of board, covered with cloth, 
and fixed on to irons underneath exactly resembling 
skates. This is long enough for two people to sit upon, 
but very narrow, the guide behind to direct it in its 
flight over the ice, and you in front with nothing to 
hold on by. When thus arranged at the edge of the 
platform, your skating board is pushed forward, and in 
a moment you are off at the rate of at least sixty miles 
an hour, as hard as you can tear, down the ice hill. 
We hesitated some time before trusting ourselves to 
this amusement, but, summoning courage, I took the 
lead, and enjoyed it so much that I induced Louise and 



47 

all the rest of the party to follow suit ; and away we 
went, one after the other, helter skelter down the ice, 
almost taking your breath away before you eventually 
stop at the bottom, by a judiciously-placed layer of 
snow. Then up again, continually renewing the 
pleasurable excitement, until it was with difficulty we 
could make up our minds to enter the restaurant and 
take some tea, where we found music and dancing 
going on among the natives, which was another source 
of interest and gratification. At length we betook 
ourselves to our troikas about midnight, and, by the 
light of the moon, raced home over the snow and ice, 
each of us bribing our drivers to go as hard as they 
could tear along, and pass the others. 

Just as I had got to this part of my letter, our door was 
opened, and Ivan brought in a large document, which, 
on opening, I found to contain invitations for Louise 
and myself from " Le Grand-Maitre des ceremonies," 
dating from " La Cour Imperiale," inviting us to be 
present at the palace on Thursday, the 6th of January 
(OS), to see the religious ceremony which takes place 
on the day of the Epiphany ; so as, of course, we 
proposed to attend, I thought I would leave this letter open 
until to-day, and now we have been to the palace, and 
returned, I can give you a short account of it. 

This day is the Kussian 6th of January (the 
Epiphany), kept very sacredly by the Russian Church 
as the day on which our Saviour was baptised by St. 
John. Accordingly every year the Metropolitan, or 
Archbishop of St. Petersburg, accompanied by the 
Emperor, his sons, and all the male members of the 
Royal Family, form a grand religious procession, headed 
by representatives from all the Russian regiments with 



48 

their colours, and proceed in state to a beautiful temple 
erected for the occasion immediately opposite the 
Palace, on the banks of the river Neva, to celebrate the 
baptismal ceremony. Such a sight of regal magnificence 
combining all the splendour of the grandest court in 
Europe, with a full display by a most pageantistic 
church, and realising to your mind a spirit of soul-felt 
devotion, I have never before witnessed. The long 
line of galleries, gorgeously decorated rooms, guards of 
soldiers from every regiment in St. Petersburg, hundreds 
of officers in full dress uniforms, with orders glittering 
with jewels, ambassadors from every court in Europe, 
and then the Emperor, with military music striking up 
by band after band as he passed along, created a 
sensation more easily felt than described. From the 
windows of the Palace we watched the ceremony. The 
Emperor, with all his court, the high priests of the 
Russian religion, countless thousands of his subjects, 
all stood bare-headed, with eight degrees of frost, while 
the archbishop offered up his prayer, and afterwards 
blessed the banners of the regiments of all Russia, by 
which he was surrounded. The religious ceremony 
terminated, the procession returned to the palace, 
passing through the rooms, the Emperor bowing to us 
all as we lined the way. To give you an idea of the 
liberality of the court as well as of its magnificence, 
there were upwards of 2,000 covers laid for a 
champagne dejeuner a la fourchette for those who were 
invited, and as we were in the circle of the diplomatic 
corps we had at our table the French, Austrian, and 
Portuguese ambassadors, Louise being seated next to 
General Le Flo, with whom I heard her discussing 
politics in connection with the future of the French 



49 

nation, but as the ambassador might object to his con- 
versation being repeated I must refrain, although there 
was much in it that was deeply interesting. 



I remain, my dear John, 

Your affectionate Brother, 

R. RICHARDSON-GARDNER. 



50 



Hotel de Russie, 

St. Petersburg, 

10-22 January, 1872. 



My dear John, 



I have said in a previous letter that the 
Russians date their civilization from the reign of Peter 
the Great, and now I propose to take you through 
St. Petersburg, following those relics which appertain 
to his memory, from his cottage by the side of the 
Neva, built by himself, to his grave in the Cathedral of 
St. Peter and St. Paul. 

Peter was a Romanoff, and was proclaimed Czar of 
all the Russias in 1689, being at that time only 
seventeen years of age. It is well known that, finding 
Russia much behind the rest of the world in mechanical 
and other arts, for which he personally had a great 
natural gift, he left his country for a time, much against 
the wishes of his family and friends, to make himself ac- 
quainted with the arts and inventions of other European 
nations, and used his tools as an ordinary workman in 
their principal dockyards. He visited England, and 
was well known in Gravesend, London, and other 
places on the banks of the Thames, and afterwards 
stayed some time in Holland, where he not only built, 
but sailed his own boat, which we have seen here, as 
well as specimens of his engraving, turning, and 
carpentering work. He rose at four in the morning, 
at six he was either in the Senate, or the Admiralty ; 
he succeeded in forming and bringing into a high state 



51 

of discipline a large army ; he found Russia without a 
fishing smack, and bequeathed to her a navy, to which 
that of Sweden, long established and highly efficient, 
lowered her flag ; he built St. Petersburg — turning a 
swamp into a great and magnificent city ; he caused 
canals and other works of public utility to be construc- 
ted in various parts of the country; endowed colleges 
and universities ; and generally promoted the advance- 
ment of his great empire. 

And now we will go to his first work in Russia — the 
erection of his own hut, choosing a site from which he 
might superintend the mighty works he had carried out 
under his care. Here it is, for the most part just as he 
left it, with its three apartments — dining-room, recep- 
tion-room, and bed-room — the first about ten feet 
square and the second about twelve feet square, the 
bed-room being smaller than either. The dining-room 
is now formed into a chapel or shrine, where hangs a 
picture of our Saviour, which always accompanied 
Peter in his travels ; but the other rooms are unaltered. 
One arm-chair of his own make stands in a corner. 
The whole cottage is now enclosed for preservation by 
an exterior shell, leaving passage room between. His 
next thought, after his home, was his church, and he 
therefore had a small church of wood erected, which 
was the original cathedral, and here it stands in its 
primitive form, and in which there is service at this 
present day. When the building of St. Petersburg had 
progressed, it became necessary for Peter to have 
a larger domicile than the cottage, as he had no 
convenience even to receive people for the transaction 
of business, so he selected a large piece of ground, 
and planted the present Summer Garden, and in one 
corner of it had a house built, which is about the size 



52 

of a very small French chateau, and in which also a 
few articles of furniture used by Peter are carefully 
preserved. 

We will now go to the Museum of Imperial Carriages 
and look round us for something commemorative of 
Peter. What do we see first ? On the top of the stair- 
case is the skeleton of a horse, not Peter's, but that of 
the late Emperor Nicholas, whose favourite charger he 
was. An inscription attached to the skeleton states 
that the horse was twenty-five years old when he died, 
and had been ridden by the Emperor for many years. 
Inside this gallery we find the Imperial Coronation and 
other gala carriages, all of the most costly description, 
with ornamented panels containing exquisite pictures by 
Boucher, Gravelot, and other eminent artists. These 
carriages are only used at the coronation of the 
Emperors or Empresses at Moscow, to which place 
they are carefully transported. It is interesting to look 
at the carriages, which have been used by a line of 
sovereigns, while on their way to be crowned autocrats 
of dominions extending over one-half of Europe and 
nearly one -half of Asia. At last we come to the 
greatest curiosity in the gallery, a covered sledge made 
by Peter entirely with his own hands. It is a small, 
close carriage, fitted as a sledge, with broad, strong 
slides ; the windows are made of isinglass, and it is 
lined with green baize. Behind there is a small trunk, 
which contained the clothes and provisions of the great 
Czar when he travelled. An extra fee to the custodian 
gained us permission to enter this remarkable carriage, 
built by an Emperor, and in which he is said to have 
traversed his dominions. 

The Imperial library contains a room of engravings 
dedicated to Peter the Great's time, among which are 



53 

many of his own likenesses, but the most amusing one 
of all is on a common, ordinary, swing sign board, such 
as they used at taverns and hostelries in times past, and 
which may still be seen swinging in English country 
districts. One Edward Wilde kept a tavern at Graves- 
end, which was frequented by the Czar, and the said 
Edward Wilde, seeing the advantage such a customer 
gave him, and being a bit of an artist, slyly painted the 
portrait of Peter and hung it up outside his house, with 
the inscription of " The Czar of Muscovy " on the top, 
and his own name of Edward Wilde, as landlord, at the 
bottom. Peter was good natured enough to allow it to 
remain, and report says Edward Wilde drove a good 
trade, people coming from miles round to see the wonder- 
ful " Czar of Muscovy " without, and within. We were 
much interested in examining the rare MSS. and missals 
in this famous collection, they bore picture engravings 
of almost every celebrated person that has lived in 
Europe, whatever has been his calling, and underneath 
one or more letters, or at least autographs of each. 
Great Britain is partly represented by letters or auto- 
graphs of Henry VII., Henry VIII., Elizabeth, James I., 
Charles I., and Queen Henrietta, Robert Devereux 
Earl of Essex, &c, but probably the most interesting 
of all are several letters of Mary Queen of Scots, ad- 
dressed by her to different people of her time, as well 
as a missal, or diary, where you may read the passing 
thoughts of her mind during her great trouble. Near 
the beginning is written, " Ce livre est a moi Marie 
Heine, 1553." Letters from English statesmen, men 
of letters, and anyone celebrated in any way, are here 
placed under glass cases, and beautifully arranged, so 
that you can easily and comfortably read them. I 
copied one from Richard Cobden, and here it is : — 



54 

" Mr. Cobden presents his compliments to Messrs. 
Pritt, Yenables, and Co., and begs to say that with his 
strong opinions against any further railways being 
authorised at present he will not be justified in having 
his name on the Barnsley Bill." 

We will now go to the Hermitage, where I won't 
detain you with any lengthened description of its 
splendid collection of pictures, more than to say that it 
contains a rare selection, numbering 1635, including 
the Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, German, French, 
Russian, and English schools, each artistically classed ; 
besides an extensive numismatic collection, as one also 
of rare gems, and lastly, Peter the Great's gallery, 
which is replete with his personal effects and relics, 
among which are the turning lathes, and instruments 
for carving with which the Monarch worked ; his 
telescopes, mathematical instruments, books, and walk- 
ing sticks, are all objects of great curiosity. A rod 
giving his height, shows him to have been of the 
gigantic stature of seven feet. Here is a dress worn by 
him, and embroidered by his wife Catherine the First, 
for the ceremony of her coronation, and is appropriately 
placed in the centre of this interesting workshop and 
museum. And now we approach the last resting place 
of this marvellous man, near which in an outside 
building exists, quite as complete as he left it, the boat 
he built with his own hands, and on the stern of which 
he carved a picture of its launch, himself standing by, 
and the priest blessing it as it lay on the water. In 
the cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, lies buried 
Peter the Great, and all the sovereigns of Russia since 
the foundation of St. Petersburg, excepting only Peter II. 
who died and was interred at Moscow. The bodies are 
deposited under the floor of the church, the marble 



55 

tombs above only marking the sites of the graves. The 
following are the names of some of those members of 
the Romanoff Royal family who are here interred : — 
Peter the Great, and Empress Catherine the First, his wife. 
Empress Elisabeth, daughter of Peter the Great. 
Empress Anne, niece of Peter the Great. Emperor 
Peter the Third, nephew of Peter the Great. Empress 
Catherine the Second. Emperor Alexander the First, 
and Empress Elisabeth, his wife. Emperor Paul, and 
Empress Mary, his wife. Emperor Nicholas, and 
Empress Alexandra, his wife. Grand Duke Constantine, 
brother to Emperor Nicholas. A baby of the present 
Crown Prince. A daughter of the present Emperor. 
The Czarewitch (Grand Duke Nicholas), eldest son of 
the present Emperor. 

The late Czarewitch, the eldest son of the present 
Emperor Alexander, you will remember, died at Nice, 
and round his tomb and those of the more recently 
deceased, exotic and other plants are grouped. He was 
the pride and hope of his house, and beloved by the 
Russian people. I cannot do better than to give you in 
conclusion of this part of my letter a very graphic 
description from Free Russia : — " One dark December 
day, near dusk, two Englishmen hail a boat on the 
Neva brink, and push out rapidly through the bars of 
ice towards that grim fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul, 
in which lie buried, under marble slab and golden cross, 
the Emperors and Empresses (with one exception) 
since the reign of Peter the Great. As they are push- 
ing onward they observe the watermen drop their oars 
and doff their caps, and looking round, they see the 
imperial barge, propelled by twenty rowers, athwart 
their stern. The Emperor Alexander sits in that barge 
alone, an officer is standing by his side, and the helms- 



56 

man directs the rowers how to pull. Saluting as he 
glides past their boat, the Emperor jumps to land, and 
muffling his loose great coat about his neck, steps 
hastily along the planks, and up the roadway leading 
to the church. No one goes with him. The six or 
eight idlers who he meets on the road just touch their 
hats, and stand aside to let him pass. Trying the 
front door of the sombre church, he finds it locked, 
and striding off quickly to a second door, he sees a man 
in plain clothes, and beckons to him. The door is 
quickly opened, and the lord of seventy millions of 
subjects walks into the church that is to be his final 
home. The English visitors are near. ' Wait for an 
instant,' says the man in plain clothes, ' the Emperor 
is within ;' but adds, ' You can step into the porch, 
His Majesty -will not keep you long.' The porch is 
parted from the church by glass doors only, and , the 
English visitors look down upon the scene within. 
Long aisles and columns stretch and rise before them ; 
flags and trophies, won in a hundred battles, fought 
against the Swede and Frank, the Perse and Turk, 
adorn the walls ; and here and there a silver lamp burns 
fitfully in front of a pictured Saint. Between the 
columns stand, in white sepulchral rows, the Imperial 
tombs, a weird and ghostly vista, gleaming in this red 
and sombre light, alone. The Emperor passes from 
slab to slab ; now pausing for an instant, as if conning 
an inscription on the stone ; now crossing the nave 
absorbed and bent ; here hidden for a moment in the 
gloom ; then moving furtively along the aisle. The 
dead are all around him ; Peter, Catherine, Paul ; 
fierce warriors ; tender women ; innocent babes ; and 
overhead the dust and glory of a hundred wars. What 
brings him hither in this wintry dusk ? He stops and 



57 

and kneels at the foot of his mother's tomb ! Once 
more he pauses, kneels, kneels a long time, as if in 
praj r er ; then, rising, kisses the golden cross. That 
slab is the tomb of his eldest son ! A moment later he 
is gone." 

And now, my dear John, to what ordinary subject 
can I descend ? How am I to glide from the grave to 
the gay ? Theatres ? No ; too sudden. The ball at 
the Palace on Monday last ? Worse still. I will keep 
that to finish with. I have it ; something I will tell 
you about some Laplanders, or more properly Samoyeds, 
who have just arrived, and are encamped on the river. 
We went down to pay them a visit, and entered one of 
their shanties, where a small family of two mothers, one 
father, and a heap of children were congregated, feeding 
on raw fish, and picking the bones of a deceased rein- 
deer. They were a curious lot. What a world this is ! 
as a friend of mine used constantly to remark. Here 
was this Samoyed family before us, where we were 
quite safe from their rapacious eyes and stomachs ; but 
if they had happened to have got one of us alone in 
their own particular country, they might be picking our 
bones instead of those of the reindeer ; because this 
same race are reputed to be cannibals, when they are 
hard up for food, which is their normal state. These 
Samoyeds are nomadic, cowering through the winter 
months in shanties, sprawling through the summer 
months in tents, their shanty is a pyramid with a roll 
of reindeer skins, drawn slackly round a series of poles, 
and an opening at the top to let out the smoke. The 
women, looking anything but lovely in their sealskin 
tights and reindeer smocks, are infamous for magic 
and second sight. In every district of the north a 
female Samoyed is feared as a witch, an enchantress, 



58 

who keeps a devil by her side, bound to obey her will. 
Over the greater part of their country the snow never 
melts, but in June the slopes of a few favoured valleys 
grow green with reindeer moss. On this the reindeer 
feed, and on these, when he can get them, and on raw 
fish, the wild men of the country live. Samoyed means 
cannibal, — man eater ; — they use no fire in cooking food, 
and hence, probably, the horrible fame they have 
acquired, which, after all, like many other ill used 
people, they may not deserve ; but I would rather not try. 
They are evidently brought to St. Petersburg by an 
enterprising entrepreneur who gathers unto himself 
many copecks for the exhibition ; and one of the 
amusements we entered into for a consideration was a 
drive in the reindeer sleigh.; quite in the "Chetvertka" 
style, four reindeer abreast, down the Xeva and back, 
all for the small charge of ten copecks each. 

Well now, I said I would finish with the ball, and as 
ladies can describe such festivities with a great deal 
more grace than gentlemen, I have, with Louise's 
permission, extracted from a letter she has just written 
a friend, her pretty account of it : — 

" The ball is already an event of the past, inasmuch 
as it came off on Monday night, and how I am to 
describe it is a mystery to me, as no language T can use 
can give you the faintest idea of the reality. If you 
have read the ' Arabian Nights,' you will remember the 
story of Aladdin's wonderful fairy palace. Try and 
imagine a suite of some nine or ten large galleried 
rooms, supported by white marble pillars, richly 
decorated ceilings, white and gold, adorned also with 
much looking-glass, opening each out of the other, 
lighted not only by the wax candles in the massive 
crystal chandeliers, but by, I may literally say, myriads 



59 

of candles placed in circles around each column from 
base to pinnacle, and also surrounding the galleries and 
windows like an illumination. Add to this, beautiful 
exotics, from floor to roof, in the four corners of each 
room, with two palm trees in the centre of the principal 
ball-room, bands of military music striking up in suc- 
cession, sixteen hundred of the haute noblesse of the 
Empire, in all the variety of ball attire and military full 
dress, and you may, perhaps, in some degree imagine 
the scene which our eyes and senses took in upon our 
first arrival at the Winter Palace, at half-past nine 
o'clock, on Monday evening. Of course, Eoyalty had 
not yet entered, as all the guests must be in waiting to 
receive them, and a right Eoyal party they did look 
when, a few minutes later, there was a commotion 
among the masters of the ceremonies, and a ' hush ' 
from all, and then the Emperor, leading the Empress, 
the Crown Prince, with his wife, the Princess Dagmar 
(our Princess of Wales' sister), the grand Duchess 
Mary (the Emperor's only daughter), with the other 
princes, and all the other members of the court enter, 
and after having been received by deep obeisances from 
all, the ball commences by the Crown Prince leading off 
the Empress, and the Emperor the Crown Princess ; 
but here I must say one word relative to the Empress's 
diamonds. The tunic of her dress was embroidered 
with the Imperial bee in diamonds ; the under skirt em- 
broidered with bouquets of raised flowers, the petals of 
each flower diamonds ; a fringe of diamonds surrounding 
the low body of her dress, a bouquet of diamonds form- 
ing the stomacher ; and as for the diamond pendants to 
her necklace, and the diamond tiara on her head, I can 
give you no idea of their costliness. But now the first 



60 

dance is over ; the ladies to be presented to the 
Empress are conducted to an adjoining room, where 
they are placed in a circle, and the Empress, with one 
gentleman in attendance to announce our names to her, 
enters, and on being presented in her turn she finds 
something graceful and amiable to say to each, as she 
slowly walks round the expectant circle. This ceremony 
over, we all return to the ball-room, and dancing 
continues until midnight, the Princesses entering into 
the spirit of it with evident enjoyment, meanwhile the 
Emperor and Empress talking, and making, in course 
of time, the whole tour of the numerous rooms. The 
whole evening refreshments of every variety are to be 
procured at a buffet, extending along a gallery, which 
runs parallel to the three largest ball-rooms. Here 
heaps of gold plate are piled up in pyramids at intervals, 
the whole length of the gallery ; and now to supper. 
A hot one, and everyone seated. The tables are so 
sumptuously decorated with gold and silver plate, the 
only thing I can think of to compare it to, would be an 
exhibition of all the race cups of the last fifty years. 
There are three supper rooms, but as we are " dis- 
tinguished strangers," we sup with the diplomatic corps, 
at a table adjoining the Emperor's, which is slightly 
raised upon a dais. After supper, which lasts nearly 
an hour, the Boyal party retire, and we leave soon 
after, being most delighted, and wonderfully impressed 
by the magnificence of the Royal entertainment we 
have attended. I feel I have told my story but ill, 
but it is impossible to give in words any description, 
or any idea of the great luxury at this court, which 
combines Oriental and Asiatic splendour with European 
taste and civilisation. Everyone is equally impressed 



61 

by it, therefore, you must not think it any excited 
enthusiasm on my part, as the Greek minister said to 
me, ' It is magnificent,' and I repeat ' magnificent ; ' 
and all I can say is that it is magnificent, as there is 
no other word to convey my feelings, and so I must 
conclude by repeating it, ' magnificent.' " 



I remain, my dear John, 

Your affectionate Brother, 

R. RICHARDSON-GARDNER. 



62 



Hotel Dusaux, 

Moscow, 

18-30 January, 1872. 



My deae John, 



Moscow ! holy Moscow ; the ancient capital 
of Muscovy, the idol of every Eussian's heart, whose 
shrines are to him the holiest in the empire, hallowed 
by centuries of grand historical events. "What as- 
sociations do not arise at the name ? Moscow ! the 
beautiful ; Moscow ! the unfortunate. What vicissitudes 
of good and evil fortune has this city not passed 
through ? Four times nearly consumed by fire — in 
1536, by accident ; in 1572, by the Tartars, when over 
100,000 persons perished in the flames, or by the sword ; 
in 1611, by the Poles, who destroyed by fire a great 
portion of the city ; and lastly, in 1812, when the 
Muscovites gave up their ancient, holy, and beautiful 
city to the devouring element, the grandest sacrifice 
ever made to national feeling. The plague of 1771 
diminished the population by several thousands, from 
which it has never recovered, and the history of its 
battles and its sieges would alone fill many volumes. 
Take for instance one of the entrance gates to the 
IiremHn, say the Nikolsky gate, under whose arches 
the troops of Tokhtamysh, of Sigismund III. and of 
Napoleon, have all marched within four centuries. In 
1408, it witnessed the siege of Moscow, by Edigei ; 
in 1551, the invasion by the Crim Tartars ; and in 



63 

1611-12, the battles between the Poles and the Kussians 
for the possession of holy Moscow; and in 1812, 
Napoleon passed through it when it was partly des- 
troyed by his orders, but subsequently restored, by 
order of the Emperor Alexander I. of Russia. 

But in this letter it is not my intention to revert to 
much of its ancient history, only so far as it is connected 
with its modern aspect. And now let me place myself on 
top of the tower of Ivan Veliki, and take a bird's-eye 
view of the town, and dot down what appearance it 
presents. In my various wanderings, I have travelled 
through Asia Minor, and the North of Africa, and I have 
floated on the Golden Horn, with Constantinople 
within my view, but I have never yet seen any town or 
city which presented a coup d'ceil, so truly Oriental or 
Asiatic as Muscovy's honoured capital, the view from 
the summit of this tower being certainly one of the most 
striking and unique in Europe. I have immediately 
under and about me the most ancient and most historical 
part of Moscow, and four of probably the most interest- 
ing buildings in the world, all within a stone's throw of 
each other. First, the Kremlin, for centuries the palace 
of the ancient Tsars of Muscovy, which has been the 
happy home of many, but also the scene of the most 
deplorable and wicked acts of which history is cognizant. 
Second, the Blagoveschenski Sobor, or Cathedral of the 
Annunciation, where the Tsars were baptized and 
married. Third, the Uspenski Sobor, or Cathedral of the 
Assumption, where the Tsars were, and are still crowned. 
Fourth, the Arkhangelski Sobor, or Cathedral of the 
Archangel Michael, where the ancient Tsars were buried, 
the present dynasty finding their last resting place as I 
have in a former letter informed you, in the cathedral 
of St. Peter and St. Paul, at St. Petersburg. Thus 



64 

truly you may pass from the " cradle to the grave," for 
here lie buried Emperors of such good repute that they 
have been immortalised by their subjects as Saints, 
with others whose characters are too truly depicted by 
the cognomen they bore, and such a one was John the 
Terrible. All these buildings are in the Oriental style 
of architecture, with scores of domes and gilded minarets 
sparkling in the mid-day sun. The late Emperor 
Nicholas added a large and handsome facade to the 
old palace, much extending its interior accommodation 
for modern requirements. The Kremlin Palace, with 
its cathedrals, monasteries, and other buildings, is 
enclosed within battlements of solid masonry, and 
pierced by five gates, the principal of which is the 
Spaski, or Kedeemer gate, which is the " Porta Sacra " 
and " Porta Triumphalis " of Moscow. Over it is a 
picture of the Redeemer, held in high veneration by the 
orthodox. An omission to uncover the head while 
passing under this gate was anciently punishable, and 
the traveller should not fail to pay the respect to old 
traditions here exacted, since the Emperor himself 
conforms to the custom. Criminals executed in front of 
this gate offered their last prayers on earth to this 
image of the Redeemer. Beyond we see a city, whose 
circumference is about twenty English miles, built 
totally irrespective of form, but presenting to the eye a 
pleasing negligence and picturesque irregularity ; houses 
large and small, public buildings, churches, and other 
edifices, are mingled confusedly together, and the streets 
undulate continually, and thus offer from time to time 
points of view, whence the eye is able to range over the 
vast area of housetops, trees, and gilded and coloured 
domes. The profusion of churches (370 in number) is 
a characteristic feature of the city. The other objects 



65 

which most attract the observer, are the Foundling 
Hospital, the Treasury, the Arsenal, the Bazaar, the 
University, the Museum, the great Eiding School, the 
Strastny, the Donskoe, the Simonoff, and Novopaski 
Monasteries, and the Novo-Devichi Convent, the 
Petrofski Park and Palace, and the Hermitage and 
Zoological Gardens. 

And now I descend from the Ivan Veliki tower, and 
enter the ancient part of the Kremlin Palace by the 
red steps, which are now only used on important 
occasions, such as when the Emperor goes to the 
Cathedral of the Assumption. Now, here is a trifle of 
history for you to ruminate over. " From the top of 
these stairs the Tsars of old allowed- the populace to 
see the light of their eyes ; here John the Terrible 
gazed at the comet that seemed to foretell his speedy 
end ; and it was here also that he committed the 
inhuman act of transfixing with his pointed staff the 
foot of the trusty messenger and friend of Prince 
Kurbski, a valiant leader of his armies, who, in the 
apprehension of unmerited punishment and death, fled 
to the Polish camp at Wolmar, whence he wrote to the 
Tsar, setting forth the crimes and atrocities of his 
reign ; the tyrant rested on his staff while the letter 
was read by his comrades, the messenger meanwhile 
standing motionless and silent. From the red stair- 
case the mangled body of the false Demetrius was 
thrown down in the court below by the infuriated 
people of Moscow, in 1606, and it was from the same 
steps that the rebel Streltsi, in 1682, tore the obnoxious 
Boyar Matveyeff, and cut him to pieces before the eyes 
of the terrified mother of Peter the Great, and 
numerous other noblemen and adherents of the court. 
By these steps, also, Napoleon, followed by his marshals, 

E 



66 

ascended to take possession of the Palace of the Kremlin." 
However, these steps lead to a gold court, an audience 
chamber, and banquetting-room, and also to the Hall of 
St. Vladimir, to which the Tsars proceed immediately 
after their coronation, and take their seats upon the 
throne for the first time, adorned with all the Imperial 
insignia, and afterwards dine amidst their nobles, 
crowned heads being alone seated at the same table. We 
now come to a very interesting part of the palace, the 
Terem, anciently devoted to the Tsarevna and her 
children. The rooms - contain many objects of great 
curiosity, among which are the bed of Alexis, father of 
Peter the Great, just as he left it when carried to his 
grave ; seals of many of the sovereigns, especially a gold 
seal of John the Terrible, which has sealed the doom of 
thousands, and which is almost painful to behold from 
its unhappy associations. Then more rooms, such as 
the Hall of the Patriarchs, &c, too numerous to par- 
ticularise, on to the modern part of the palace, built by 
Nicholas. There we have on the ground floor all the 
private apartments of the Emperor and Empress, and 
the upper floor, containing the State apartments, which 
are as grand and as gorgeous as an autocratic emperor 
like Nicholas, with untold means at his command, could 
make them. There are several large halls, among which 
are the hall of St. Andrew and the hall of St. George, the 
latter 200 feet long, 68 feet broad, and 58 feet high, where 
the names of each individual decorated with this order 
since its foundation is to be found inscribed upon the 
walls in letters of gold ; the furniture is black and 
orange — the colours of the order. There is also a 
picture gallery, containing, among others, some fine 
pictures brought here from the Royal Castle at Warsaw, 
upon seeing which Louise pitied the poor Poles, and, 



67 

addressing herself to Ivan, lamented that Russia should 
so have despoiled Poland, upon which Ivan asked us 
where was the Kertch collection ? and entertained us by 
the following narrative : — He said " when he was at the 
American Embassy at St. Petersburg, as chasseur, it 
became his duty to attend Governor Seymour, the 
American Minister, to Kertch, after the Crimean War 
as interpreter ; and when there Governor Seymour, 
without giving his name, visited the museum, and 
inquired of the Russian director of the museum what 
had become of certain objects of interest which he had 
expected to find there ? upon which the Russian 
director asked Ivan confidentially whether the gentle- 
man was an Englishman, and on hearing from Ivan 
that he was an American, the Russian director broke 
out into great lamentation and anger, and said that the 
English had despoiled his museum to enrich their own 
at home." Aliena nobis nostra plus aliis placent. 

And now we enter the treasury, which is the de- 
pository of venerated historical objects and of treasures 
hereditary in the reigning house, as the immense riches 
amassed here, consisting of gold and silver plate, of 
antique pattern and shape, precious stones of the rarest 
quality and value, and costly manufactures of different 
kinds, take hours to see. I cannot attempt to give you 
any definite idea of them in detail, but will only men- 
tion one or two objects which are more striking because 
of their historical associations. Fowling pieces, in- 
scribed as having been presented in 1614 to the Tsar 
Michael (the first Romanoff) by Favian Smith, an 
Englishman ; the standard of John the Terrible, 
planted at Kazan in 1552 on conquering that Province, 
as well as the pointed spear stick, which he did not 
hesitate to drive into the foot of anyone who offended 



68 

him ; also the Order of the Garter and the patent for 
it, sent by our Queen Elizabeth to this horrible ruffian. 
The sword and spurs of Charles XII. of Sweden, which 
he wore at the battle of Poltava ; coronation chairs of 
the Empress Elizabeth, Paul I., Alexander II., and 
several others bearing their respective ciphers ; the 
throne of Poland, removed from Warsaw and used by 
Nicholas as King of that conquered country ; the 
insignia of Alexis, of Peter the Great, and his brother 
John. An ivory throne, date 1472 (just four hundred 
years old), which the present Emperor Alexander used 
at his coronation. Near it a throne used by Alexis, 
studded with 876 diamonds and 1223 rubies, besides 
turquoise and pearls. An orb of great historical im- 
portance, sent by the Greek Emperors Basilius and 
Constantine to a Prince of Russia ; it is most splendidly 
studded with 58 diamonds, 89 rubies, 23 sapphires, 50 
emeralds, and 37 pearls, all of immense size and lustre. 
Next come different objects, viz., the actual coronation 
robes worn by several of the Tsars and their Empresses, 
military uniforms, and the ordinary jack boots of Peter 
the Great, Peter the Second, and Paul. Then come the 
crowns of the different monarchs, and among them we 
find those of Poland, Kazan, and other conquered 
kingdoms, and if our Government pusillanimously give 
way, as they have lately done on the Black Sea Treaty 
question ("Ex uno disce omnes "), the Russians will 
soon add the crowns from Constantinople, in the south- 
east of Europe, and from Bokhara, in the north-west of 
India, to their already rather extensive collection. Beds 
of different monarchs are also exhibited here, and two 
camp bedsteads which belonged to Napoleon, one of 
which was used by him on the night of the battle of 
Berezina, when they were taken by the Russians. 



69 

And now, my dear John, as I fear I shall weary you 
with descriptions, I will take you to a " Traktir," where 
I have no doubt you would like to have joined us in 
discussing a Russian dinner, accompanied by Russian 
wines, in a Russian Restaurant. "We ordered our 
dinner in the morning, and on arriving at the appointed 
hour of seven o'clock, found all ready. I don't know 
whether I have previously mentioned to you that Colonel 
Money went off to Southern Russia soon after our 
arrival at St. Petersburg, and Colonel Isenbeck (the 
Russian), by rail to Nijni-Novgorod, and after that by 
sleigh for forty days and nights to the " Amoor" river 
to his duty there (that's a nice journey in the dead of 
winter), but we were joined by an English friend on 
our visit to Moscow, the pleasure of whose company we 
had at dinner. For the amusement of the ladies I will 
describe him as being twenty-eight years of age, fair 
complexion, tall and elegant in figure, expressive eyes, 
and altogether very good looking. The diner-a-la-Russe 
commences with the " Zakuska." It consists of various 
relishes, such as fresh caviar, raw herring, smoked 
salmon, "Balyk" (sturgeon dried in the sun), raw 
smoked goose, radishes, cheese, butter, and other 
comestibles ; these need not be specified in your menu, 
the word " Zakuska" comprehending 'everything of the 
kind in season. A liqueur glass of Kiimmel (Alasch), 
flavoured with carraway seeds, or of Listofka, flavoured 
with the young leaves of the black currant, is taken after 
the Zakuska, which is laid out on a separate table, and 
is partaken of, all standing round. We then take our 
seats at the regular dinner table, and here is our 
menu : — 



70 

GREAT MOSCOW TRAKTIR. 

— ♦ — 

Menu, lUh Jan., o.s., 1872. 

SOUP. 

{A small portion of each). 

Ukha. 

Eastigai. 

Solianka. 

FISH. 
Sturgeon. 
Eastikai. 



Pojarskie Kotlety. 



Utka y-Biabchiky. 



Kuriefskaya Kata. 



Nesselidde. 



WINES 

{From the Crimea). 

Donskoe Champ an skoe. 

Kraonaju Kirmsk. 

Kapetinskoe. 

Now there's a puzzle for you, but take my word for 
it, it was all good and well-served by the most civil of 
waiters, attired only in bright-coloured silk shirts, with 
clean white trousers. After dinner we went to another 
" Traktir " to partake of the celebrated yellow Caravan 
tea, " Joltoi Chai," which comes overland from China, 
and is served in tumblers with a slice of lemon and 
sugar. Try a cup of tea in that fashion, and tell me 
when you write how you like it, only you may not have 



71 

the " Joltoi Chai," which is important. You must 
know in all the tea- drinking rooms there is a large 
barrel organ, worked by machinery, which plays the 
most select and fashionable music from the most popular 
operas ; and so we drank our tea to the strains of this 
instrument, the polite attendant bringing us a list of 
the pieces for Louise to make her selection. The 
natives sweeten their tea with a piece of sugar kept in 
the mouth ; perhaps that would not exactly suit you, 
so I shall not recommend it. 

But I have not yet told you how we got to Moscow, 
which was, of course, by train, leaving St. Petersburg 
at seven o'clock in the evening, and arriving here at 
eleven o'clock next morning (only sixteen hours), which 
we think a bagatelle now. There are carriages divided 
into half- compartments, and we took one for sixty 
roubles (about eight guineas), and made ourselves quite 
comfortable. I seem destined to be in the company of 
amusing stove-keepers, as our present one (a good- 
looking young man this time, of about thirty-five years 
of age), very soon began to speak a few English words, 
and informed me that he was married to an " Eengleesh 
vooman, a veery nice vooman," and she spoke a " leetle 
Euski," and he spoke a " leetle Eengleesh," but neither 
of them spoke a word of each other's language when 
they married. What ceremony they went through, if 
any, I could not fathom, nor how they managed to 
make known " their loves," but probably it was through 
the medium of their eyes, as he had a brilliant pair of 
light blue. The poor fellow kept the stoves all right, 
and was duly rewarded with copecks at the end of our 
journey. When we arrived at our hotel we were sur- 
prised to find that the landlord had prepared a suite 
consisting of six rooms for us, which he said was in 



72- 

accordance with our telegram, so we requested to see it, 
and here it is as delivered : — " Hotel Dusaux, Moscow. 
Prepare sitting-wom and bedrom 4 gentleman and lady, 
leaving here seven glok hafrj thes evening. — Gardner, 
St. Petersburg." — It appears that the clerk who sent it 
must have imagined himself very clever, and turned my 
" for," which he imagined to be " four," into the figure 
4, and so prepared for us an immense reception and a 
disappointment to our host. I could not make out how 
our rooms were heated, as I examined all round our 
." sitting-wom," and could find no trace of hot-air pipe 
or stove ; but on retiring to my little bed I soon jumped 
out, as I touched something awfully hot with my feet, 
and on lighting the candle again I found the stove, 
which was lighted from the outside passage, ran along 
level with the wall, and, although not easily noticeable, 
was sensibly felt. I managed to intercept the heat with 
a non-conductor, and only left enough to be comfort- 
able, and I never slept better in my life ; in fact, I 
began to like it, which accounts for ladies taking to 
" hot bottles." 

The next evening we had an adventure, a short 
narrative of which I sent to The Times, and headed it 
''Moscow — A warning," in which I said " That as the 
Moscow Exhibition is in the course of erection, and 
doubtless there would be several of our countrymen here 
in the autumn months, I considered it my duty to send 
them a warning not to go beyond the precincts of the 
city either on foot or in a public vehicle, unless properly 
accompanied," but as I don't know whether The Times 
has or will publish my letter, I send you a short account 
of what occurred. 

Ivan, our dragoman, suggested that we should go to 
evening service in the church of the Strastny Convent, 



73 

where all the prayers and ceremonies are performed by 
the nuns, to which we readily assented. Issuing forth, 
therefore, from our hotel, Ivan hails " Hisvorshik," and 
directs the driver to take us to the convent ; Ivan in- 
tending to follow us closely in another sleigh, as they 
only accommodate two. The convent is within the 
city, although we were unaware of its locale, and there- 
fore, when the driver took us out of the city, through 
the St. Petersburg gate, we thought it was all right, as 
many of the monastic establishments are some way 
beyond the town. However, I looked behind for Ivan 
two or three times, and began to wonder why he had 
not kept up with us, when at last I saw him galloping 
after us at a furious rate, and on overtaking our sleigh, 
he jumped out, caught hold of our man's reins, and a 
serious row commenced, Ivan charging our driver with 
not obeying his instructions, and attempting to take us, 
knowing us to be foreigners, out to a village called 
Sisyjatsky, a place of evil notoriety, about a mile in 
the suburbs, for the purpose of getting us robbed by 
his accomplices there. It seems our driver didn't know 
that Ivan intended to follow us, so thought he could 
take us with impunity where he pleased, and the mis- 
fortune of the horse in Ivan's sleigh falling, facilitated 
his designs, so that Ivan was delayed until he could 
procure another sleigh. He then drove to the convent, 
and finding we were not there, and had been seen going 
down another road, his suspicions were awakened, and 
he drove at a gallop after us, overtaking us when we 
were within a quarter of a mile of what appears to be 
about the worst place near Moscow, inhabited by a law- 
less lot of ruffians. 

I could hardly credit Ivan's suspicions until we re- 
turned to our hotel, when they were entirely confirmed 



74 

by Russians and others connected with the place, who 
said that it was not an unusual occurrence for foreigners, 
and even Russians (when inebriated) to be taken there, 
hustled by these roughs, robbed of their furs and valua- 
bles, and then let loose to find their way back to 
Moscow as best they could. 

We, however, got back to the convent in time for the 
conclusion of the service, and the sweet silvery voices 
of the nuns, as they chanted the responses, soon made 
us forget all about the Sisvjatsky villagers, and our 
narrow escape from their polite attentions. 



I remain, my di;ar John, 

Your affectionate brother, 1 

R. RICHARDSON-GARDNER. 



75 



Hotel Dusaux, 

Moscow, 

20th Jan.— (1st Feb., 1872.) 

My deae John, 

Foundling Hospitals ! Now, I don't intend 
to enter upon the question as to whether such institu- 
tions tend to recognise and increase immorality, but 
simply to give you a short account of a most interesting 
visit which we have to-day paid to the largest hospital 
of the kind in existence, viz., that at Moscow. We had 
previously gone through the Foundling at St. Peters- 
burg, which is a branch of the institution here, and we 
1 were so interested with the child that we determined to 
visit its parent. 

The Foundling Hospital at Moscow was opened in 
1763 by Empress Catherine II., and in the year of 
grace 1871, about 12,000 children were received at its 
doors, not, as at some other institutions, in a secret 
manner, but openly, and taken either by the mother or 
some friend into an entrance room set apart for that 
purpose. There the infant is at once received without 
any further question being asked than, has the child 
been baptised ! and if so, by what name ? The child is 
then registered in the books of the institution, and a 
number is assigned to it, which is henceforward worn 
around its neck, and figures on its cot, while a receipt 
showing the same number, is handed to the bearer of 
the child, in order to enable her to visit, or even claim it, 
at any future period up to the age of ten years, in which 



76 

case all its expenses have to be paid. The infant is then 
passed into another room, where, after being undressed 
washed, and weighed, it is swaddled in the clothes of the 
hospital and handed to its future foster parent, she being 
the woman who happens at the moment to stand at 
the head of the list amongst a number who are always 
waiting in attendance. These women, who are generally 
peasants from the country, have frequently, it is be- 
lieved, themselves been the depositors of their own 
children at the hospital, either personally or by means of 
a friend, a few hours previously ; but be that as it may, 
the nurses who support the children's existence are pro- 
vided with good fare at the institution, and are paid 
about 8c/. a day, which I fear is an attraction many of 
the peasant women seek, at the expense of their own 
offspring, who are left in their villages, to be brought up 
by hand. We saw two infants arrive while we were in 
the room where they are received, and go through the 
operation of being washed and weighed, the poor little 
things were respectively twenty-four and thirty hours 
old, and looked in very good condition, being, we were 
informed, about the average weight. One was a 
boy, and the other a girl, the boy having a blue 
ribbon attached to his cap, and the girl a red, which is 
the distinction of the sexes right through the insti- 
tution. In the first ward there were about thirty little 
ones, all recent arrivals, with red and blue ribbons, 
and ensconced in such neat clean little cribs, with a 
foster mother to each, rocking it in its cradle, or 
imparting to it its nourishment, and following on, 
there were wards seemingly without end, all full of 
children in cradles, and nurses attending them, the latter 
all being clad in a hospital uniform of brown holland, 
with clean white caps, plaited frills with narrow dark 



77 

blue ribbon, all well behaved, who respectfully bowed as 
our party passed. The children are all vaccinated at 
three weeks old, from calves kept for the purpose on the 
establishment, and passed on from ward to ward, until 
they are about six or eight weeks old, when, if. they are 
strong and healthy, they are sent together with their 
nurses to the villages to which the latter belong, where 
the nurses receive about 4s. Qd. a month for the main- 
tenance of their charges, under the supervision of the 
government doctor of the district. I am strongly of 
opinion that many mothers bring their legitimate chil- 
dren up from the country, get them in at one door, and 
enter themselves at another as nurses ; get appointed 
to be foster mothers to their own children, and so get 
paid for nursing them eventually at their own domestic 
hearths. Well, suppose they do, the humbler classes 
are very poor in Russia, and live a very hard life, and 
if they procure this small assistance from the Govern- 
ment, the rich don't feel it, and the poor much need it, 
and Russia has not yet arrived at those refined princi- 
ples of social science which would permit a child to 
starve if the parent was too poor to keep it alive. Poor 
little Atoms ! In one ward there was a steam apparatus, 
for hatching the prematures into vitality ; there were 
four such little weeny things undergoing the process, 
the whole four not weighing much more than a full 
grown child, the weight of each being registered on the 
wall over its head. The doctor who accompanied us 
said they were very successful with them, if they ouly 
lived long euough to get them under or rather over 
steam. Next to the prematures there were three babies 
(I was going to say twins, but I think they are called 
triplets), two girls and a boy, all together in one cradle, 
born of one mother, and brought in on Christmas Eve ; 



78 

weight of the three on arrival lTJlbs. : they were all 
mercifully asleep, so we had a quiet look at them, and 
wondered where and who their mother could be. 

By-the-bye, we were astonished at the quietude 
of the place, with seven to eight hundred babies under 
one roof, and so little ciying, which we were assured 
was in consequence of the great care and attention paid 
to them, and which we could not fail to perceive, as 
nothing which good domestic management can suggest, 
or medical art approve, has been omitted. The boys, 
when they grow up, generally become agricultural 
labourers. Some of the more intelligent are brought 
up at the Industrial Schools at Moscow and St. Peters- 
burg, where they are taught various trades, and may 
also become hospital dressers at the School of Surgery. 
Some of the girls are taken back to the institution, and 
trained as nurses, and even sometimes as midwives, for 
which a special school is attached. In taking leave, I 
came to the conclusion that there is a political founda- 
tion for keeping up these large foundling hospitals 
beyond the feeling of philanthrophy or humanitarianism, 
which is. that Russia has a larger tract of country than 
it can conveniently populate, and population being 
essential to the progress and advancement of the 
Russian empire, the state protects the lives of its 
infantile subjects, legitimate or illegitimate. 

And now we find our pair horse sleigh ready waiting 
at the door to take us into the country to visit what are 
popularly called the " Sparrow hills/' a range forming 
a semi-circle round Moscow, about six miles distant 
from the city. This drive is particularly interesting, 
both as affording a fine view of Moscow, and as being 
the ground where Xapoleon obtained his first 
glance of it, and being also the same route by 



79 

■which his army entered the city. On our way we 
stopped at the Novo-Devitche Convent, and had 
the pleasure of seeing all the .nuns in the Kefectory 
enjoying their mid-day meal. This was only allowed 
as Louise was of our party, otherwise no gentl- 
men are admitted alone ; but they need not have been 
alarmed, as I thought they were all extremely plain and 

uninteresting, although Reginald A said he caught 

a sly glimpse of a very pretty face under the black 
fantastic and most unbecoming hood. Our sleigh fol- 
lowed us from the convent to the hills, when we had the 
full enjoyment of a walk over the hard crisp snow, with 
a bracing air, and over fifteen degrees of frost. I have 
no occasion for a bar ometer, as I can tell by my moustache 
what the temperature is to a degree, according as it is 
limp, stiff, or stalactic. It was the latter to-day, as 
the frozen breath was hanging in long icicles down 
to the bottom of my chin ; but how enjoyable 
the atmosphere, and how interesting the spot on 
which we are standing, for it was from here, that 
the advanced guard of the French army caught the 
first view of the golden Minarets and starry domes 
of Moscow, and the Kremlin burst upon their sight. 
"All this is yours," cried Napoleon, when he first 
gazed upon the goal of his ambition, and a shout of 
" Moscow ! Moscow ! " was taken up by the foremost rank 
and carried to the rear of his army. But the Russian 
army had marched out of the whole capital, with muffled 
drums, and colours furled, leaving the city to its fate, 
so that ere the night had closed in, and Napoleon arrived 
at the gate, he learnt to his astonishment and mortifica- 
tion that 300,000 inhabitants had fled, and that the only 
Russians who remained in the city were the convicts who 
had been liberated from the gaols, a few of the rabble, 



80 

and the sick and wounded in the hospital, and it was soon 
discovered that the fire which had commenced could not 
be restrained, and fanned by the wind it spread rapidly, 
and consumed the best portion of the city. " The 
churches," says Labanne, " though covered with iron 
and lead, were destroyed, and with them those graceful 
steeples which we had seen the night before resplendent 
in the setting sun ; the hospitals, too, which contained 
more than 20,000 wounded, soon began to burn — a har- 
rowing and dreadful spectacle — and almost all these 
poor wretches perished ! " Also, Karamzin writes, 
" Palaces and temples, monuments of art, and miracles of 
luxury, the remains of past ages and those which had 
been the creation of yesterday, the tombs of ancestors, 
and the nursery cradles of the present generation, were 
indiscriminately destroyed ; nothing was left of Moscow 
save the remembrance of the city, and the deep 
resolution to avenge its fate. At length, on the 19th 
of October, after a stay of thirty-four days, Napoleon 
left Moscow with his army, consisting of 120,000 men 
and 550 pieces of cannon, a vast amount of plunder, 
and a countless number of camp followers. And now 
the picture of the advance was to be reversed, Murat 
was defeated at Malo-Yaroslavits on the 21th, and an 
unsuccessful stand was made at Yiasma on the 3rd 
November. On the 6th, a winter, peculiarly early and 
severe, even for Russia, set in, the thermometer 18 
degrees below freezing, the wind blowing furiously, and 
the soldiers struggling in vain with the eddying snow, 
could no longer distinguish the road, and falling into 
the ditches by the side, there found their grave. On 
the 5th of December, Napoleon left his army ; on the 
10th he reached Warsaw, and on the 18th Paris 
and the Tuileries." Thus ended the greatest military 



81 

catastrophe that ever befel an army in either ancient or 
modern times. And who were the great Russian 
generals who counselled the destruction of their city, 
rather than the conqueror should possess it ? De Tolly, 
and Kotusoff; and who was another great Russian 
general whose name has figured in history ? Suwaroff. 
And we have stood at their graves in the churches of 
Kazan and Alexander Newski at St. Petersburg, and 
read these inscriptions : — 

Here lies Kotusoff. 
Here lies Suwaroff. 

In the evening Louise and I walked alone for an hour 
on the terrace in front of this same Kremlin, with the 
full bright moon pouring its softened rays on this now 
peaceful city, and indulged in reflections on its past, 
its present, and as to what its future history might be ; 
and so ended our visit to Moscow. 



I remain, my dear John, 

Your affectionate brother, 

R. RICHARDSON-GARDNER. 



82 



Hotel de RrssrE, 

St. Peteesbueg, 

22?ul Jan.— (3rd Feb. 1872.) 

My deae John, 

Back again to our old quarters for a few days, 
and then off to Warsaw, on our homeward journey. 
We find a great difference between the climate of St. 
Petersburg and that of Moscow, the latter being much 
more healthy and bracing. For all that I would rather 
live at St. Petersburg, as it is always gay and lively. 
And now for a few words about the opera and theatres. 
Our first visit was to the Grand Opera House, where a 
Russian ballet, and nothing but ballet, went on for 
nearly four hours, the subject being the adventures of 
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, the horse of the knight, 
and the ass of the squire, figuring prominently in the 
scenes. The dancing was most excellent, and I am 
pleased to say the danseuses bear irreproachable cha- 
racters. No one is permitted to go behind the scenes, 
and they are all educated and taught at an academy 
provided by Government under professors of the terpsi- 
chorean art. There are among them a celebrated group 
of Polish dancers, who gave us in great perfection and 
in national costume, the Polish national dance, called the 
" Mazur.'' This must not be confounded, as it often is in 
England, with the " Mazurka." It is a totally different 
thing, as it is danced throughout by four couples with 
great esprit and aplomb. Another night we went to the 
Russian Opera House, where we were much entertained 



83 

"by an opera, the subject of which was the history of the 
first Romanoff, but who himself never appeared, it 
being forbidden that a representation of a member of the 
present reigning family should be placed upon the stage. 
The house was full of Russians of all ages and sizes, as, 
it being a popular and nationally historical opera, 
schools and children were brought to hear it. The opera 
houses and theatres in Russia are subsidised by the 
State, and are under the surveillance of a Government 
officer, who appoints directors to each establishment. 
The opera houses of St. Petersburg and Moscow are 
under the management of " Signor Eugene Merelli, 
Regisseur en chef de 1' Opera Imperial Italien de St. 
Petersburg et Moscow," to whom I had the pleasure of 
an introduction, and who very kindly sent us a box for a 
" Patti " night (not purchasable for money, as the boxes 
are either hereditary in families, or subscribed for the 
season), and who afterwards invited me to a soiree at 
his house, to meet all the artists and artistes of the grand 
opera, which I can assure you was a great treat. We 
had a most delightful evening, and among the guests were 
many whose names have been familiar to me as " house- 
hold words " for years, and others, whose melodious 
notes have so often enchanted me at both the London 
opera houses. We had Arditi, chef d'orchestre and the 
following tenors : — Naudin ; Bettini, husband of Tre- 
belli-Bettini ; Corsi, son-in-law to Naudin ; and Nicolini, 
whose success has been greater at St. Petersburg than 
in London, as the music is sung here half a note lower, 
which suits his voice much better ; also, Ciampi, the 
buffo ; Bagagiolo, the basso profundo ; and Madame 
Bagagiolo, a magnificent type of the true Italian 
woman ; Sinico, the pretty and piquante soprano ; and 
the handsome Trebelli, the celebrated contralto ; and 



84 

many others, all of whom were exceedingly polite and 
agreeable to your English brother, and what pleased him 
much was the enthusiasm with which they spoke of old 
England. Le Comte Brebinske, a non-professional 
guest like myself, gave " The health of Merelli," which 
was heartily responded to. Schneider is here at the 
Opera Bouffe, and we have had a Russian friend's box 
sent us twice, so we heard her in La Grande Duchesse 
de Gerolstein and in Barbe Blue; but I think her day is 
over. She is much too vulgar and in bad taste to suit 
any but Parisians. 

Coming out of the opera we observed huge fires 
ascending from great cauldrons in the street, which had 
a very cheery effect, the object being that the servants 
in attendance with the carriages may get a warm up 
when the cold is intense. When the temperature is at 
ten degrees of frost the soldiers are furnished with a 
head-dress of Caucasian origin, called a basJdlick. The 
ladies wear them also, made of fine materials from 
Circassia, and create rather a pleasiug effect. Louise 
has invested in a couple, and was photographed in one 
last week. Talking of the cold, after twenty degrees of 
frost the Droshki drivers are not allowed to stand about 
in the street, as it has often occurred that after an extra 
drop of schnaps to keep the cold out they have fallen 
asleep in the night, and been frozen to death, the 
horses going home of their own accord to their stables 
with the Droshki and its unfortunate driver. 

I took a Russian bath this morning, which was a 
novelty even to me, though I am an old Turkish bath 
bather. My bathman, who put me through the pro- 
cess, was a great strapping fellow, about three inches 
taller than myself. First of all, buckets of tepid 
water were thrown over me, and then followed a good 



85 

lathering of soap, made up in a bowl, after which I 
was placed on a perforated board, through the holes of 
which hot steam began to percolate, which, getting 
hotter and hotter, and much too hot, although I can 
stand a good deal, I was obliged to sing out and make 
signs, when my bathman, mistaking my movements 
for a signal as to its not being hot enough, clapped on 
a little extra, which started me pretty quickly off my 
perforated bed, and I could not be induced to take 
another dose. I then observed six-foot- three provide 
himself with a cat-of-nine-tails, in the shape of a birch, 
made of bushes of the bay tree, and strongly suspect- 
ing when he got me at full length on my face he in- 
tended to administer this instrument, I respectfully 
requested to know (by signs, mind, as we could not 
speak a word to each other), what were his intentions, 
when he unhesitatingly informed me that it was part 
of the regular process, and must be proceeded with. I 
therefore resigned myself to my fate, went flat down 
on my face as directed, and got birched from my neck 
to my heels in true Spartan fashion, without wincing 
or moving a muscle ; however, it was not as bad as I 
expected, as my tall friend took compassion on the 
tenderness of my skin, finding it not quite as tough as 
that of a Kussian bear. 

And now, my dear John, I must conclude this letter 
with one or two incidents which amused me while stroll- 
ing out alone last Christmas -eve, when the Kussians, 
like others, make more merry than usual. They are an 
extremely good-natured people, and seem to be still more 
so when in their cups, as most of the inebriated men 
seemed to have a tendency towards embracing everyone 
they met ; I saw a good many peasants and working 
men a partially obfuscated state during my walk, 



86 

through some rather low thoroughfares, and was much 
entertained by finding that every man who was " half 
seas over " had always a sober companion to take charge 
of him. I afterwards discovered that this is a regular 
arrangement between two friends, Damon going in for 
enjoyment, while Pythias is held responsible for remain- 
ing sober, and the next outing they take the positions 
are reversed, Pythias giving way to the tempter, while 
Damon is bound to resist. I only found one exception 
during the night, when I saw two friends, who having 
for a long distance lunged against each other, at length 
lunged in the same direction, and over they went, rolling 
softly in the snow. Another fellow went head foremost 
into a snow heap, which had been piled up at the side 
of the road, and I assisted in dragging him out by his 
heels, where he would otherwise assuredly have been 
smothered. I saw another brought out of a Traktir by 
his sober friend, to the top of a staircase, and there he 
remained ever so long holding on by the rail, until his 
friend returned, but in the meantime I expected every 
minute to see him come rolling down the stairs ; but no, 
he held on, and it became most difficult for his friend to 
get him away, which reminded me of a man on board 
the steamer from Kingston to Holyhead when we were 
crossing the Irish channel on one occasion. It was a 
stormy passage, and this poor fellow was awfully ill, 
and got hold of one of the foremost stays and stuck to 
it, although he was wet through and through, and the 
waves were continually breaking over him. None of 
the sailors could .get him away, even by force, as it be- 
came rather dangerous, and they wanted to remove him ; 
but he held on as though his life depended upon his re- 
taining his hold of the stay. In my rambles, I at 
length heard a tremendous hallooing proceeding from a 



87 

certain quarter, like the roar of a bull, but which I 
found to be the sonorous voice of a male Russian, who 
was undergoing being pinioned into a Droshki, his own 
son assisting in the operation. It seems, by what I 
could make out, by observation, that the son, a small 
boy, had followed his father during his tour of inebria- 
tion, no doubt by his mother's directions, until at length 
he called a policeman's attention to his parent, and had 
him brought out of the public, when the small boy duly 
produced from his pocket sundry straps, which he had 
providently brought with him for the purpose, and the 
sire being helpless, the dutiful boy, aided by the police- 
man, strapped him in the sleigh, and carried him home 
in triumph. While the father was hallooing like a mad 
bull, the small boy was grinning from ear to ear at his 
success, and evidently enjoying the fan. 

Our stay here is now becoming short, we shall soon 
be " homeward bound," and so adieu until we meet. 



I remain, my dear John, 

Your affectionate brother, 

R. RICHARDSON-GARDNER. 



89 



TO THE KEADEE. 



(Vide page 15.) 

When these letters appeared last winter in the Windsor 
and Eton Herald, I received several communications from 
friends, questioning the correctness of my views with 
regard to the antagonistic feeling therein described to 
exist, between the Prussians and Russians, and the 
eventual probability of an alliance between the Russians 
and the French ; but agreeing with me that the tone of 
feeling of foreign countries towards each other was 
naturally a matter of great importance to our own. 

This morning, 18th December, 1872, I have read 
a most remarkable confirmation of some of my observa- 
tions, in the letter of no less a person than the well- 
informed Prussian Correspondent of The Times; an 
extract from which I append : — 

" The Times" Wednesday, December 18, 1872. 
GERMANY AND ITS NEIGHBOURS. 



(FKOM OUR PRUSSIAN CORRESPONDENT.) 

BERLIN, Dec. 15. 

This year's celebration of the Russian military festival 
of St. George has been again marked by the presence at 
St. Petersburg of some Prussian officers and the drinking 
of enthusiastic toasts in honour of the two armies and 

G 



90 

their " ancient camaraderie." In strange contrast with 
these official demonstrations, the language of the Russian 
Press continues as hostile as ever to this country. When 
I say that three-fourths of the leading Russian papers 
are on principle opposed to their German neighbours, 
I am rather below the mark than otherwise. Hardly a 
day elapses without the Germans being in these organs 
either made the object of virulent attacks, or coolly 
charged with the design of acquiring influence and ter- 
ritory at Russia's expense. Distrust naturally begets 
distrust, and so we need not wonder that Russian 
politics should of late have ' been vigilantly scrutinized 
in this part of the world. In their estimate of Russia's 
position and strength, the German Press cannot of 
course overlook what has lately happened thousands of 
miles away on the distant banks of the Central Asian 
streams ; and the remarks indulged in on this interesting 
topic are occasionally based upon the supposition that 
the ill-will so steadily shown this country by the 
Russian Press may some day influence the action of the 
Russian Government itself. The following reply to 
these German remarks is from the St. Petersburg Mir : — 



" England regarding our position in Central Asia as more and 
more dangerous to herself, it is only natural that she should he 
seriously disquieted hy the progress of our arms. But we 
confess we cannot conceive the motives of German journalists 
in constituting themselves the allies of the Anglo-Indians, and 
manifesting solicitude at the danger said to he threatening the 
dominion of the Calcutta Viceroy. This policy on the part of the 
German Press is the more startling from its heing adopted just 
when the English journalistic agitation against us has somewhat 
cooled down. The only inference to he drawn from this is that 
the German Press is determined to oppose us, come what may, 
and to criticise our action, even in regions where Germany is 
utterly powerless to injure us Some Berlin papers 



91 

a ctually go the length of Warning the English for permitting us to 
d eal with Khiva as we please. We do not know how far these 
attacks will he instrumental in heating the imagination of 
English politicians ; but, whatever may be the result, there 
remains the interesting fact that German hostility to Kussia has 
become so inveterate and irrepressible a feeling, that our Prussian 
friends have, in the midst of all their domestic troubles, time left 
to accord England the favour of their advice, though nobody has 
asked them for it." 

It would be a work of supererogation to prove that 
the Germans can have no interest in entangling them- 
selves with Russia, when they have so much else on 
their hands ; nor is it at all necessary to demonstrate 
that the Russian Government having selected the 
principal object of its foreign policy in a southerly and 
easterly direction, is not particularly anxious to come 
to loggerheads with its formidable neighbour in the 
west. Yet so steady is the current of Russian public 
opinion in favour of France, and so noisily does it run 
in spiteful enmity against this people and Government, 
that, although the relations of the two Cabinets are as 
yet the very best, there is really no telling what may 
occur in the future. 



WESXMLHSESB : 

PEESTEE BY T. BEEITEEE A2H) CO. 51. BEPEBT STBEET,- — W. 



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